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 ...
Friday the Thirteenth falls on Wednesday this month.
It will next month also.
Presented as a public service. Or something.
It’s nice to know that someone else read Pogo Possum... ;o]
Actually, I always wanted them to reshoot that scene.
Luke is zooming across the face of the Death Star, getting ready to make his run and drop his bomb. He hears the ghostly voice of Obi-Wan saying, “Use the Force, Luke.”
Luke replies, “Yeah, and wind up dead like you??? I don’t think so! Switching to tactical mode.”
But that will probably never happen.
Oh my gracious! Ick, too!
So today marks 49 years..
Forty-nine years of ...
Sweet little floof! Looks kinda shy, and not sure of things.
Good morning.
He’s not really sideways: the whole room is askew.
Ah. OK. I was fearing for my equilibrium there for a while. ;o]
With luck today, I’ll get the bedroom taken care of and get the last of the tubs unpacked. That will be different! Then I’ll feel almost permanent!
I still need that driver’s license, though...I still have five months to get it, so I’ll shoot for next week.
You’ve been there only about ten weeks. You’re doing extremely well.
It’s supposed to be warm this afternoon. We’ll go outside and work on forestry.
I hate it when cats mess with the gravity of a room.
I feel light-headed just thinking about it.
Congratulations!
49 years of not yet getting to 50 years?
Frappy Eyeday Heave, everyone!
We have almost made it again.
Oh, and Happy Valentines Day!
Another day has dawned. There is Sunbeam for the animal life. I’m going to take a shower, and then we really need to buckle down to a day of Forestry.
I have a tendency to judge this current move by the past moves and I come up very short, indeed. As I said, long about 3,000 posts ago or so, I could unpack a three-bedroom house in as many days and it would look like we always lived there.
Even allowing for age and certain infirmities, I still feel disappointed in my efforts.
Yes, Friday Eve is finally here! And aren’t we lucky? Most people have four Mondays and a Friday, and we have three Mondays, a Friday Eve and a Friday! :o])
Will your Forestry efforts be close to home?
Years ago, when I was first separated from my first husband, I tested at the employment office to see where my strengths were. Forest Ranger! In a day when women were excluded. I would have loved it.
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