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 avoid codswallop like the plague, though I have to admit to being gobsmacked frequently reading the Daily Mirror or watching Nancy Pelosi struggling to speak.
Thank you for beautiful kitteh! Also, congrats for Vlad’s performance in geography bee!
Neither profane nor obscene—I can use it!!!
Thank the creator for all the kittehs! And the birds, too. I was awakened promptly at 5:00 by Tom the Mocker on the Carters’ roof, which is right above my bedroom window. And then I was dragged out of bed by Jake, the lord of all he surveys.
I’ve avoided plague, too!
Jake must be bigger than I thought. Yesterday, a cardinal was trying to run a couple of smaller birds off the feeder. The little birds weren’t giving an inch.
The Morning Floof looks like a really good mouser that we had. The evil little neighborhood bully shot her with an arrow, and it hit at the hip joint. My mother told me to take the cat across the highway to the vet and have him put a cast on her leg. He later said it was the first time he had ever done that, but that was long ago and far away.
Because it was November, and the weather had been mostly wet, my mother made a denim boot for the cast to keep it clean while the cat was on her rounds. I was amazed one day to look out the living room window and see that cat in a lop-sided run-hop as she went after something.
There I went, gathering old wool...
*ahem* :blush:
Good morning. It’s Saturday, and all that is on the docket for today is watching some of the British dramas I got on Thursday. Maybe, if I feel up to it, I’ll take another stab at the bathroom cabinet and see if I can get it up. Maybe. If I feel up to it. Or maybe I’d be better off just trying to crochet. Therapy, you know.
I need to take some pills and then finish the letter I started yesterday, and then, with any luck, I’ll get to watch the British Dramers. ;o]
I hope the sun isn’t hidden by clouds today. The trees and bushes don’t mind, but I do. On my way back from getting the x-rays, I saw a gorgeous forsythia bush that was in full bloom! Spring! And of course, I have to wash the tree pollens off the windshield before I can drive anywhere.
Since I saw the forsythia, and am planning on making a terrarium, I thought I would check to see if I could buy a forsythia or two and plant them in front of my apartment. Just for some color.
Jake is persuasive.
We have a full day of stuff to do. I would have like to sleep longer.
I like the new tagline!
Yes, its a perfect tagline!
I just checked with Walmart online and they have eight terrarium plants in 2” pots for $12.99. Now I’m excited! I also checked for forsythia plants, and even on a good day, they are beyond my ability to get right now.
Anyway, I can order the plants online and they will be here Tuesday, and in the meantime, I can get potting soil, gravel and charcoal or moss. Providing, of course, that the DD comes in today. Otherwise, everything will have to wait.
I remember from junior high that terrariums are supposed to include an animal. Maybe you could add a couple of worms.
I don’t know what animal would be small enough, and worms are not on my list of things for the terrarium. If I ever get it built. I think I’ll try to find some tiny little figurines for it.
I suspect I’ll be watching a lot of British Dramers and doing a lot of therapy in the future!
Maybe a tiny cricket? You don’t know what sort of animals you’ll find this spring!
If its all the same, I don’t really want to find a critter. With my luck, it would be a pregnant something and then I’d have to call in the bug guys, and I don’t want to do that with birds that need looking after!!
Of course, if I had the money in my hot little hand, I’d order the plants so that whenever the check DOES show up I can get the other stuff, and when the plants get here, there may be a hitch hiker. ;o]
It’s true, animals can surprise you.
I was out all morning and then had a nap. Now I’m about to take some kids out to deliver a change of clothes to Frank, who went home with a friend from the Cub Scouts yardwork event.
A real ZOT thread.
Works for me! We haven’t had a ZOT! thread in a long time!
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