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 ...
Good evening, TC.
Will be on the night shift tonight.
All okay in your world?
LOL! Two good ones...
Glad that I’m not alone in thinking that.
Yes, everything is fine. James has a meeting tonight for Webelos Adventure Camp youth staff. Vlad will be in the state Geography Bee tomorrow morning. It’s not raining. The cats are happy.
LOL!
COL!!!
(Chuckle out loud)
Too bad she can’t ask him to do Congress.
A second flood, a simple famine
Plagues of locusts everywhere
Or a cataclysmic earthquake
I’d accept with some despair
But, no, you sent us Congress.
Good God, sir, was that fair?
Don’t forget dogs and cats living together.
Was thinking along the same lines...
The Morning Floof looks like he was just caught in the act of something nefarious.
Good morning. I hate when I sleep in! GAH!
It would seem I’m not out of the woods on the relapse, as the few things I’ve done since Sunday have caused a mini-relapse. Fever, achy bones and joints, loss of appetite,...and so on, ad nauseum.
So I’ll try to limit my goings to the QuickCare that goes by another name here, today and get those x-rays done. I hope. Needless to say, my brain is compromised.
Must be Friday.
Happy Friday!
I’ll do my happy dance at the end of the work day.
Did you get one of those Huawei brains?
I think this brain is a lobstrosity that even Huawei couldn’t conceive of.
Good happy Friday to you!! The Happy Dance works whenever and wherever its done! I promise!
Yoicks!
Greetings from the North Carolina GeoBee. Vlad is one of 17 students who missed one question in the preliminary rounds. Six students missed none, so the 17 are competing for 4 spots in the final.
I wish I had something to eat!
Yessiree. I realized only one password was compromised, so I’ll go through my little book of websites and their passwords and change the ones under that password. Then when the next “upgrade your password” message pops up, I’ll make appropriate changes.
I also realized it was from the Outlook/Hotmail account, so I stuck in an especially strong password for them. *grrr*
How you doing, Rob’t? We haven’t seen you in a while, and of course, I always wonder about those I don’t see on a semi-regular basis. I hope all is well with you and your family.
:o])
Good for Vlad, and I said a little prayer for him, so I’m hoping that he will do OK.
Today was the day I went to get my x-rays (Why do I want to write “ex-ray’s”?) and the lab opened at 0800 instead of 0900, so I will know next time I have to get x-rays.
The young man who was the x-ray tech used to go to the salmon frys in Payson, and I told him my dad had started those, back when I was a very short person. The tech was quite personable, and very good at his work and he even coined a new word: “brove,” as in, “don’t breathe or move.” Yeah. He had fun today!
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