Posted on 10/06/2018 2:02:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Pentagon research project called "Insect Allies." Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project involves using gene-editing techniques like CRISPR to infect insects with modified viruses that could help make America's crops more resilient. If a cornfield were hit by an unexpected drought or suddenly exposed to a pathogen, for example, Insect Allies might deploy an army of aphids carrying a genetically modified virus to slow the corn plant's growth rate.
According to the DARPA website, these "targeted therapies" could take effect in a single growing season, potentially protecting the American crop system from food security threats like disease, flooding, frost and even "threats introduced by state or non-state actors.
… Insect Allies, is less concerned. "Anytime you're developing a new and revolutionary technology, there is that potential for [both offensive and defensive] capability," Bextine told The Washington Post. "But that is not what we are doing. We are delivering positive traits to plants… We want to make sure we ensure food security, because food security is national security in our eyes."
Insect Allies is still in the early stages of development, and at least four U.S. colleges (Boyce Thompson Institute, Penn State University, The Ohio State University and the University of Texas at Austin)have received funding to carry out research. Bextine told The Washington Post that the project recently achieved its first milestone — testing whether an aphid could infect a stalk of corn with a designer virus that caused fluorescence. According to the Washington Post, "the corn glowed."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Whatever you do, don’t smile.
You’ll want your picture to look the way you will when you get pulled over.
If you do the photo right, the cop who pulls you over will start to wonder if you’re going to shed your Edgar suit and eat him. It works wonders.
That is, as long as he’s seen MIB.
My 13th birthday was in January too.
But that was decades ago. I felt a lot younger then...
Well, um, thanks for the advice and the um, attempts at levity, but um, I’ll be having the mugshot when I feel fairly human, and smell sweet and lacy and feminine. You know. Throw them off. Sorta. Unless they’ve seen MIB.
Utah takes smell-a-vision driver’s license photos? Wow!
And good morning. If only we all looked as beautiful as today’s kitteh ...
Wow. Gray eyes on a gray kitteh! And even the nose is gray! Double wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a completely gray floof. So pretty!
Good morning. It’s 25° and not likely to warm up five degrees until long after my car and I have Utah IDs.
Utah is very clever at some things. ;o]
The eyes are amazing, aren’t they?
It’s raining here again. This is so boring.
The skies here are clear according to my phone, but that only means that its a lot colder than it would be with cloud cover.
I’ll leave about 0800, because I’m not sure what time the DMV opens and I need to stop at Walmart for yogurt and water before it head farther west. I suspect they won’t spoil even if I’m in the DMV for an hour! Not at these temps, anyway.
Can you imagine feeling someone/something staring at you and turning to find Those Eyes? Wow.
Yogurt would be okay for a couple of days, even in warm temperatures. I know this from experience.
The teenaged boys and I will go to the gym after dropping Frank and Kathleen at the day camp program (last day). Then we’ll come home, have showers and early lunch, and then we’ll go to the library again.
My Not-Real Brother asked, “How can yogurt go bad? It’s bad even when its fresh.” No, its not too bad as long as I get the Greek-style. The other? No way.
I think I need to find the library, here, if for no other reason than to get rid of my NV library cards. I have one that’s good in all of Clark County and one that’s only good in Henderson. I want to reduce the reminders to the bare minimum. Just because.
Libraries are great.
Yes they are great, and my sister and I were given written permission to use the “Adult” library which was upstairs from the children’s library which was actually in the basement. Very low ceilings that fluorescent lights didn’t help keep the claustrophobia away.
We spent a lot of summer days browsing before taking home the cherished selections, just so we could stay awake half the night and read. :o]
Good morning.
Entropy always wins!
Last night the DOT was apparently doing battle with entropy on the street my apartment building is on. I think the hammers of jack stopped their hammering between 3 and 4 am. I did some sleeping, but several of the things in my dreams made strange grinding noises until I awoke to realize it was the sound of the hammers of jack.
However, it is Hippo Freeday, so, go out and free a hippo!
Or not.
Reminds me of Gallagher. "How can you know when fish goes bad? Does it smell good???"
Didja see “Hidden Figures?” There was the one scene where the black employee of NASA had to look for a book in the whites-only section so she could learn about programming computers. She was chased out, but not until she “borrowed” her book.
?
!
Been a while for me.
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