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 ...
I don’t like the new guy quite as much as the old guy, and I don’t like his wife nearly as much. I liked Joyce: she was dotty.
That's too much irony to twist. I'm glad your phone was able to find its way home again.
I drove over to the Gilberts’ house, which was not the site of the party, to pick it up. They live in a little subdivision just behind the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which had passed on the way home from the hike, but, of course, I did not know, at that time, that my phone was so nearby.
The only action on it while it was lost was three texts from DP, hoping someone would hear the Battle Horn of the Haradrim and answer - although they couldn’t because of the password - and a call from me, hoping someone would hear the “brrrrrring! brrrrrring!” and answer it.
Unlikely to be able to get much of an adventure story out of that, but let Darksheare mull it over for a bit, and he could morph it into an eldritch horror scene that would chill your gizzard.
Of course, if we did that, you might not want to use it any more.
Stipulating that Darksheare is a creative genius, getting anything dramatic - let alone eldritch horror - out of my life would be impressive.
Well, Pat ...
You forget that the essence of making people uncomfortable is to take the ordinary and twist it into something eerily unfamiliar.
And since there is so much of ordinariness in your life, as you allude, it is a mere dabble to turn your ordinary life into a cabbage-patch doll nightmare.
(Password: Bwa-ha-ha!!)
Well, darn. All the more reason for me to work backwards and see all the movies with him as Super Sleuth!
You posted that because there are snails outside my door, right?
The Morning Floof has some beautiful gray eyes. I wonder if he knows about the color? It could be a real asset to finding ladies. (Or if the sexes were reversed...)
Good morning.
The laundry has been sorted, the cage cleaned, the trash is ready to go out, and “Midsomer Murders” is reaching the end. The murderer is about to be caught!
Excellent! It’s Monday!! :o])
Kitteh is a boy. Happy Monday! The young persons of the family are not stirring with much gumption, although Tom got himself out the door to go to a mandatory work meeting at 0700.
Have you seen your snails yet today? Did you give them names?
No, I haven’t seen them as its still dark out, but I saw their trails, trying to get over the door mat and into the house. Names have not occurred to me. Perhaps something like S-l-o-w and M-o-t-i-o-n.
Back from the laundry. The light in the laundry room was on and the door was unlocked again, and when it was left open the last time, I told Chuck. I’m sure its just someone who forgot, but its getting to the point that I was a gnat’s eyebrow away from calling the police and have them go in for me and check.
But then I think of the proverbial tale of Peter and the Wolf. I don’t want to be Peter.
Happy Monday, all.
And the beat goes on...
I saw a news item about a spy bot company looking to switch from snails to something else as the snails were too slow and left evidence they were around.
Ah, well, sometimes you just need a new plan.
It is Monday.
Happy Monday to you, ArGee! The first one is under the belt and has but a little over 12 hours (for you) before we’re into Monday II! At which time, I will watch one more episode of “Midsomer Murders!”
I hope your First Monday is a good one!
Indeed. “Midsomer Murders Monday!”
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