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 ...
You’re not Irish, are you? The expression is, “And the balance of the day to you, too!” unless you don’t like the person. Don’t be concerned. I just become hypersensitive sometimes.
If my mother didn't like the persons(s) she would add, "And the rest of the day to meself!"
Awwww ... baby kitty. She looks like our Ginger who’s 17 years old now.
Good morning! Today's kitten was found in a shed near Ottawa, Canada.
The Morning Floof looks especially marmaladian this morning! What a handsome young man to grace us with his presence!
Good morning. I’m here, but I don’t know how long I’ll last. There is so much to do and I just don’t have the energy to do it. The list grows each day, and all I can do is look at it.
I don’t think I’ll be going for the x-rays today because of the stress of an unfamiliar place/situation, but I might make it to the library if for nothing else that to sign up, get a card and get a list of DVDs I want. That’s a quiet thing, and who isn’t at home in a library?
Good morning, and happy Spring! I’ve been super agitated the last few days and doing foolish things like eating the leftover desserts. Today I plan to be more sensible.
Happy Spring to you, too! All the trees in town blossomed overnight, and the place looks like a wonderland. Of course, with the relapse, the allergies are multiplied exponentially, and there is nothing I can take but Benadryl.
I went through that agitation/foolishness not too many days ago, and I, too, have planned to be more sensible. Food is probably the worst vice to have. ;o]
Richard Simmons the Diet Guru, said once upon a time that you only needed one mouthful of the sweet you craved, no matter what it was, in order to stop the craving. Any more than that one mouthful and you’re going to put on the ounces. And its amazing how quickly those ounces add up. That’s hard to remember when faced with a frosted brownie.
I wasn’t really craving sweets. I’m really craving a week (or more) without teenagers and other irrational people all the time. When does the crazy ladies’ cruise to the less-popular Greek islands leave? (I understand that would be much better in my mind than in reality, when the cruise would be full of lower-class Eastern European men.)
A cruise like that should never be undertaken without a male to escort one through the bevy of lecherous Eastern European men.
It does sound appealing, though. If I ever get the letter to my Real Brother finished, I’ll ask if he would help me rent a vehicle to visit the sibs/ofspring on the other side of the Rockies. All of whom are within 100 miles of each other.
There might be some way back in the ancestry somewhere. But I’m not aware of any Irish.
I’m a proud, American mutt. I’ll celebrate any culture that isn’t out to destroy mine.
And we’re off on another day.
Happy Thursday / Friday Eve / Son of Monday everyone.
(I’m off, anyway. I’d have to be to keep living in this city.)
Yosemite Sam?
Oh, wait, was that a rhetorical question?
Just announce next week as spring cleaning week and everyone in the building past 6am will be pressed into service.
You'll either get your wish or a really clean home. Win/win if you ask me.
So many things are better in your mind than in Real Life. I suppose I could go on a crazy ladies’ excursion to some boring place in North Carolina where nobody else would bother to go ...
Good morning. My calendar says today is Thursday, and I don’t see any point in arguing.
That’s a wonderful idea, ArGee!! I used to do that on a smaller scale on Saturdays when the kids were in school. The knew that when their rooms were cleaned, the day was theirs. Or mine. :o]
Well, Ganag, I just spent 30 pleasurable minutes at the library, and came home with Season Nine of “New Tricks” and the original “Father Brown” movies. I figured that will be enough to watch for a week.
“Midsomer Murders,” “Grantchester,” “Doc Martin,” and “Dr Blake” are on the list. The latter isn’t released in this country to the library system, yet.
Now, I’m going to have a grilled chicken sandwich and call Charlie and tell him I get to watch the good stuff. He’ll like that!
Congratulations on your success!
Thank you! I had to come home and get two pieces of mail that have my address on them because my driver’s license is still Nevada. But from the time I first got there (the photo) to the time I returned home with the goods, the rain had stopped.
So I’m ready to watch some movies! After I call Charlie. He called yesterday and I had company, but when I returned his call, he didn’t answer. He called while I was in the library, so I need to call him back.
Oh yes...two snails crawled across my sidewalk when I came home. Unngh.
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