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 ...
The entire day of Monday I should have been cancelled. I have no idea how Monday II is going to shape up, but I’ll give it a chance. For about five minutes...
Good morning. Kitteh will wake you up by noisily batting that ball around.
Squeeful floofy fing!
Good morning. I’m going to comb my hair and have a breathing treatment and then I’ll be back. It’s been raining fairly hard since about 2200 last night, and I can hardly wait to see what Pine Mountain looks like! I know — snow is snow.
It does rain in the desert, we hear from our agent in Twentynine Palms.
Hope all goes well with nothing but good news out the other side, Nully.
Good morning.
Kitteh is sad because it has noticed it’s another Monday coming.
Good morning and have a great day, y’all!
Yes and the problem there is the same one we had in Vegas (also on the Mojave Desert) and that is that the ground has been baked hard as rocks for millennia and unless there is a gentle, soaking rain, the water will run off, and produce the next worse thing: flash floods.
How is said agent doing in her new classes?
The Roku came yesterday, but I waited until the rain was pouring down an hour ago to walk over and get it. When the sun comes over the yardarm, I’ll get it hooked up.
In other news, as I was checking out the fare on PBS yesterday, I found three programs I will definitely watch - Grantchester, ‘Foyle’s War and the Woodwright Shop. I still have to check and see what else is offered. There were several that caught my eye, so they may be worth watching, if just to see if there is anything I’d like to go back to.
I’m also going to hang a couple of paintings when I’m behind the TV table today, (I think I need a taller table) because I want to look at them. My dad painted one and my mother painted the other. The one my brother painted is in the bedroom.
Those three paintings are too large for small walls, so I may be able to find places for other things. I hope. Still trying to make it look like “Home” in here.
Right now I have the hangries. No food or water until after the procedure.
Thanks
We haven’t heard from Elen, USMC, since Saturday. I told her to spend all her time with the smart people!
Do smart people live in deserts?
This comes to mind with the title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6syRRHTTic
Yepper, I know the feeling! Hang in there! Prayers for you. :o]
Some do.
Living in the desert can make you smart.
Some people in the Marine Corps, posted in the desert, are very smart ... or at least, good at memorizing the information on which they’re going to be tested. I suggested Elen spent time with these people, memorizing the information on which they’ll be tested.
So what are they making knees out of these days? Teflon - stainless steel - titanium - dilithium crystals - retired Fortran code?
Beats me, I just had a wee bit of torn cartilage trimmed away.
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