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 have all mine written down in a little 5X7 notebook specifically because my short-term memory is so compromised. When I travel, I bring the book and a travel laptop. CFIDS/ME has taught me to make sure I have checks and balances for everything in my life.
I have to write stuff down or I’ll never recall it. I learned that the hard way when I was working, because the disease is unrelentingly insidious.
Yes, the Friday Eve Revenge of the Monday should make your weekend worth having. Again!
Good morning, ArGee. I hope your day is a good one, in spite of the forecast.
You’re most welcome! :o])
Fast enough for what?
Oh!!!
W000t!!! <3 Good job!
Thank you. If only everything else will go that way today.
G’orning, y’all!
How many ways are there to say “cute”?
I wonder what it is that predisposes her to that? Is it the neglect of the original owner so that she didn’t learn to use cuttlebone, or is it astronomical growth rate, or something else?
You are going to have a grand time during retirement! Not only will you do what you want to do, you’ll appreciate it!
From what the vet said, it was malnutrition. When I got them, they had no names, had never been covered at night, had no gravel or cuttlebone, and the cage had newspaper on the bottom. They were fed dollar store food, and were five years old when I got them, but Beaker was so small, I thought she was a juvenile.
I bought them gravel and a cuttlebone first thing that day, bought better food at Walmart (I still can’t afford the pet store kind) and added a conditioner, I also got some liquid vitamins for them, and an insect killer can. (You know, the flat ones that hang in the cage?)
They were also given Las Vegas water which causes kidney stones in humans after a few years, so I buy distilled water. When I first looked at her I saw that her beak had been trimmed straight across, instead of pointed, so she couldn’t eat properly. I almost cried.
The woman said she got them from a breeder who was indiscriminate about which birds mated, as they were all in one big cage. That’s all I know. It was enough to make my blood boil. Neither woman had a clue how to take care of birds.
Within two weeks of getting them, Beaker had grown and put on weight and they are now a bonded pair.
I’m sorry about the long-windedness, but I keep thinking if I had known what condition they were in, especially her and her beak, I wouldn’t have taken them. But I would have, because I rescue parakeets.
The vet did an amazing job on her beak, and I’m hoping that in time, the abnormal beak growth will slow down, and I won’t have to pay $100 a pop.
They look so warm and cozy!! I miss the kittehs!!! Thanks for the post!
Yin and yang!
Oh, are those Chinese kittehs?
That reminds me of Tom’s pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving.
Kitty cobbler...
“We” (Royal We) had a panicked memo from IT about this last year.
Luckily none of our critical systems are within barge pole length of the Internet. I bet my Huawei router leaks like a sieve too.
Evening, moose!
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