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 ...
Just when my last child should leave home. Thanks for nothing, Earth.
See 3178. I won’t have to call in the pros after all.
Rewiring lights might teach him a lesson the hard way and trip a breaker, but he can’t really hurt anything.
I’ve gotten the 120vAC occasionally. It hasn’t hurt me any.
Or so you claim. Meanwhile, the rest of us look at you somewhat askance.
One thing I will admit; it's important to know which things around you are electrical conductors.
Yessss!!!!
Robert Heinlein, in "Stranger In A Strange Land", had a character mention that things work better with electricity. Then too, it was off at the breaker.
Good morning. I’ll take my shower and then I’ll finish the bathroom cabinet and attempt to get it put up. If I find that it’s a little beyond me, I’ll leave a message for Chuck and ask him to help me when he gets here around 1030.
And I’m going to ask for an application to buy a house. There are several in the state, and a bunch of them in this area, so that’s good. I don’t want to move farther north.
Please don’t hurt yourself hanging cabinets!
Very interesting, thanks!
What a strangely-marked little floof. Sort of like the Artist couldn’t decide which colors went where!
I’m cold, so I need to go stand in the hot water under the heater in the bathroom until my blood starts to flow again.
Chuck told me what the previous renter paid for utilities in this apartment, and January last year was $80. Since I covered the swamp cooler vent, I suspect my bill will be much less. At any rate, its not so scary to contemplate, now, and maybe I can turn the thermostat up in here! ;o]
Nope, not gonna hurt myself. I’m too old to do that. I’m old enough that I know when to ask for help so I don’t break a bone. Broken bones are not good in old age wimmins!
Maybe cover the vent with a couple more layers!
I’m going to make Shannon very unhappy today. She’s been sitting in a box that held some textbooks ordered from Amazon, but I’m going to take it away and use it to mail Elen’s comic books to her.
The vent has two white trash bags over it, taped on all four sides with a double layer of tape. The winds over the last week made it suck and billow, and made all kinds of noises as it was doing it, but the tape held, and when I stood under it and reached up to see if there was a leak, it was solid.
I’ve kept the room thermostats below “the comfort zone” because I’ve never had baseboard heating and because I haven’t been in “winter” since 1980. So when the bill comes, it will be for two months.
Poor Shannon! Lucky Elen!
I just checked the destructions for the cupboard, and I think I can do it myself. The brace at the bottom is put on after the cupboard is in place. I can just carefully “walk” the entire thing into the bathroom and put it in place. Not the first time I’ve done this!
Just be careful.
A busy day is planned here.
Welp. I’ll either have to get in touch with my son or call Chuck when daylight hits Hurricane, because I can’t seem to get the towel bar off the wall. In theory, I know how its done, but I don’t seem to have the upper arm strength to do it.
So I’ll just go ahead and finish the cabinet and get it ready to move, and wait for Chuck.
Sounds like Chuck could help. Don’t hurt yourself!
I promise I won’t hurt myself (she said in a Tim Taylor voice.) I will go ahead and finish putting the thing together and then worry about putting it into the bathroom when Chuck gets here.
I had made an appointment for Beaker and thought for sure it was next week, but I didn’t hear the call come in and I didn’t realize it had until I checked my voice mail as I do once a week. Dang. I need to get her in ASAP because her beak is close to touching her breast feathers. Not good.
Oops. Reschedule time!
I’ve packed a box with comic books and t-shirts and will mail it to Elen later today. I have a large flat-rate box in which her computer will fit. I suppose I don’t need bubble wrap if I use more t-shirts!
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