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 ...
A nice, new stove would be wonderful, actually, and it would certainly help. It seems as though I’m getting the urge to bake again, and a nice, new, WORKING stove would be essential for that!
I want to smell bread baking!
My problem is that I'm judging myself on moves when I was younger and had to do more unpacking for more people, and still it was "home" within a week of the moving van pulling away. So I don't like that things are still "in my way."
It will come together, I know, but just not fast enough for me.
Things never come together as fast as they can fall apart.
Even stranger, I did travel into a City this morning !
Derby city.
Spies everywhere.(!)
:D
But no man eating fog.
They neglected to accept their man eating fog quotient, unacceptable.
They will receive a double shipment post haste.
LOL,
Derby would greatly benefit from a Shipment of man eating frogs.
A fog of frogs that feasts on progs?
I read a headline this morning that said that crickets were the cause of the diplomats fleeing Cuba, not so long ago.
If it hadn’t been so close to the time when I just crawled out of bed I would have had a very good, very hard laugh!
I know a song about a ram at the Derby fair.
Good morning. You’re up early!
I'm not up as early as I wanted to be because I still have letters/cards to write, and some phone calls to make when businesses wake up.
Someone rang the doorbell last night, waking me out of a sound sleep, but by the time I got to the door, no one was there.
Meh.
I want to go to Walmart but IF the truck starts, I would be afraid to shut it off!
Pretty little Siamese! Just faint tinges of color that will darken as he ages.
I never thought I’d see the day when I looked forward to such a simple thing as a photo of a kitteh, but I do. I enjoy them so much!
According to the poster, mama cat is a Persian, but daddy was a rounder. Maybe more than one rounder: the litter is quite varied.
I ate fog once. I didn't find it very filling.
And we’re off!
Well, I’m off!
I must be to keep coming back here.
Speaking of which, my last day at Dept of Ed is 1/15. I’ll be starting at Dept of Social Services on 1/16. I’ll be an actual Project Manager for a contracting group developing the software, so the politics will be much less insane.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.