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 ...
Excellent!
I competed in Math, Slide Rule and Science in high school - Leveraged those wins into a couple of free-tuition scholarships and a few grants. They helped also with the NROTC scholarship, since I had no athletic teams. (Bowling is NOT an athletic event, according to the Navy and Air Force.)
Regular Science competitions also completed phased out any “SAT nerves” when those tests came up. The SAT was “just another Saturday taking long tests ...” so “No nerves.”
Good for you, Rob’t! All I could do in school was win spelling bees and hit soft balls out of the ball diamonds.
I had rheumatic fever in the third grade when everyone else was learning division and multiplication, and I’ve never quite been able to catch up. I was very relieved when hand-held calculators became affordable! Now, of course, math and spelling are both compromised. :o]
4 slots and he was 5th, which is 11th for the whole competition, but not in tbe finals. Maybe next year. We got to the Envirothon meeting only half an hour late. I had tentatively activated Tom as a backup transportation resource, but I was able to redirect him to Walmart.
Well, Vlad has nothing to be ashamed of, for sure! Congratulations to him for making a good effort!
The strangest thing just showed up on my doorstep...the mailman delivered a small Styrofoam box that had something in it that “clunked” when I picked it up, and the return address was CafePress. I can’t afford that site, so I was very curious.
Now, I’m even more curious. It’s a large coffee mug that shows a bookcase and the caption is, “So many books, so little time.” SOMEone has been in my apartment and has seen my wall-plus of books!!!
I have no idea who that could be and I would really like to send a thank-you cod. ;o]
Write it up anyway! “Placed fifth in regional science competition while competing as a (junior) against other schools.”
You could leave a cod on your door.
Don’t leave those on anyone’s doorstep.
Yessss, clever move.
I see she hasn’t lost Her strategic thinking after all these years, :D
If She does that, I want a ring side seat ! Big LOL.
I wouldn’t recommend leaving a Cod on the door.
They attract flies in hot weather. Swarms of them.
‘Face isn’t having warm weather yet. However, here in NC, it’s 75F.
On the other hand baccala on the door will be rather fly free.
Unless it gets wet.
...And slides vertically down from the nail landing with a sickening plop on the floor.
Good morning, Moosie. (I think I have the time difference right...)
I know someone who said she had “graduated” from British drama and was now into anime. How can a person graduate from British drama? So many shows, so little time! Will I ever get to watch them all???
Oxford English Dictionary...
“I think that’s a right load of old codswallop.”
I haven’t been walloped by a cod, but I was only in England the one time.
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