The Pentagon Wants to Make an Army of Virus-Spreading Insects. Scientists Are Concerned.

.livescience.com ^ | October 5, 2018 12:57pm ET | Brandon Specktor

[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."

[Monkey Face]

When I think of horrible sucking sounds, I think of Ugly Bob, a resident of Espinoza. He was probably one of the most obnoxious people I’ve ever met. He made this horrible, almost unbearably frequent sucking noises, like someone would who was blowing a kiss that just kept coming.

And then he just disappeared.

[Monkey Face]

It’s morning, and although I’ll miss the posting of the Morning Floof, I’ll see it in a while, but first, I have to sew.

My neck is making me wish it was on someone else.

[Tax-chick]

Good morning.

[Tax-chick]

[grania]

Unintended but not all unanticipated consequences will follow.

[Monkey Face]

Good morning.

All it took was for me to go make the bed and have a breathing treatment and I come back to find the Morning Floof!

[Monkey Face]

And she looks so tiny and new! Straight from God! Well, almost, anyway. Maybe by a week.

I have to go put something on my neck to make it hurt less and loosen up the muscles, but I don’t know what it will be.

Anyway, off I go to finish what I started.

[Tax-chick]

It makes me want to have foster-kittens. Good think Jake and Shannon wouldn’t stand for it!

[Monkey Face]

Done. Now I remember why I don’t like working with crepe. It looks good, after pressing, though I didn’t use steam on it. I cut six inches off so she doesn’t trip going up the stairs any more.

She doesn’t have my number, so I’ll call her when I think she’s awake. She’s another senior who likes to sleep in. ;o]

[ArGee]

w00t!

[ArGee]

Yellow!

It be Monday II.

[Monkey Face]

Lol!

Thanks! Second Monday deserves that!

[Silentgypsy]

Hooray! Happy Trash Day! (Do you think we ought to get out more?)

[Silentgypsy]

“What time is it?”

[Silentgypsy]

Jello!

[Monkey Face]

You rang?

[Silentgypsy]

Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

[ArGee]

HAH! I actually listened to a YouTube of Lilly Tomlin calling General Motors the other day. “How are you doing, General?”

[Tax-chick]

It’s a thought. Are there people for whom Trash Day is not a landmark event?

[Darksheare]

Yello