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The Pentagon Wants to Make an Army of Virus-Spreading Insects. Scientists Are Concerned.
.livescience.com ^ | October 5, 2018 12:57pm ET | Brandon Specktor

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 ...


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: aphids; boycethompson; cornelluniversity; crispr; darpa; hurricaneutah; insectallies; ithaca; molassesmiasma; monkeyfacerules; newyork; nithaca; ohio; ohiostate; pennstate; pennsylvania; texas; undead; undeadthread; undeadthreadhere; uoftexasataustin; workingdogs
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To: Tax-chick

What beautiful amber eyes on this Morning Floof!! Thank you!

I needed that.

I slept fairly well, in spiet of things. So many people to notify. And the responses just kept coming. Anyway, I’m almost packed. Just the lotions and potions to be put into travel containers, and then I’m good.

And except for a few tears when I got the call, I’m good. No word on the funeral date, but when the group is ready to go, I will be, too.


5,261 posted on 04/06/2019 2:32:32 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: Tax-chick; Silentgypsy; ArGee

5,262 posted on 04/06/2019 2:45:38 AM PDT by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: Monkey Face

Good morning. Kitteh is so much better than we are ...

I hope everything goes smoothly.


5,263 posted on 04/06/2019 2:56:22 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("President Trump likes Chairman Kim." ~ Sarah Huckabee Sanders)
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To: Covenantor; Monkey Face; Silentgypsy; ArGee

Heh, good one!

I’ll be spending the night with the Middle School Youth at church tonight, so there will be no early-morning kitteh on Sunday. It will be closer to 10:00 a.m. EDT.


5,264 posted on 04/06/2019 2:57:55 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("President Trump likes Chairman Kim." ~ Sarah Huckabee Sanders)
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To: Tax-chick; NicknamedBob; moose07; NoCmpromiz; Delta 21; Silentgypsy; Dead Corpse; ArGee; All
This is the eulogy I posted on FB this morning:

Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from AZ that I had been waiting for and yet dreading. My dear brother, the man I knew all my life, passed from this world into the next, no doubt with the trepidations we may all feel at that time.

He was a typical older brother when we were growing up, and as I became an adult, I came to see him as a friend. His was not an easy life, but then, if we are loved by the Lord, and if we have a job to do, our paths will never be easy ones. But that is essential for our spiritual growth.

There are now four of us left of the original seven, and I've mourned the loss of each sibling, this one a little more because of the years we lived in close proximity. I suppose as each of the next ones go where I can't go, yet, I will mourn them more than this brother because they have been in my sphere longer.

I will go to AZ and represent those who have gone before him as well as those who are still here, with me, who are unable to go. I will tell him I love him, and I will kiss him goodbye, and I will go on with my life, remembering the good things about him and allowing his misdeeds and mistakes to slowly disappear into the background of life, as they should.

Safe journey, Brother. DA

5,265 posted on 04/06/2019 4:28:21 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: Monkey Face

(((Hugs)))


5,266 posted on 04/06/2019 5:28:50 AM PDT by moose07 (DMCS (Dit Me Cong San ) Forward to the glorious world of next Tuesday !)
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To: moose07

Thanks, Moosie! <3


5,267 posted on 04/06/2019 5:36:03 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: Monkey Face

So sorry for your loss.


5,268 posted on 04/06/2019 8:25:58 AM PDT by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Tax-chick

Thank you for Magical Kitteh!


5,269 posted on 04/06/2019 8:28:10 AM PDT by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Covenantor

Uh oh.


5,270 posted on 04/06/2019 8:31:01 AM PDT by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Silentgypsy

Thank you! You help to make it easier to bear. ;o]


5,271 posted on 04/06/2019 8:45:53 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: null and void

I forgot to ping you to this.

So Ping


5,272 posted on 04/06/2019 8:50:05 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: Monkey Face

Prayers up.


5,273 posted on 04/06/2019 9:12:15 AM PDT by Delta 21 (Be strong & prosper, be weak & die! Stay true.... ~~ Donald J. Trump)
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To: Delta 21

Thank you so much! <3

‘face

:o]


5,274 posted on 04/06/2019 11:23:21 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: Monkey Face

{{{HUGS}}}


5,275 posted on 04/06/2019 5:07:37 PM PDT by null and void (If socialism is so grand, why are Guatemalans coming here instead of going to Venezuela?)
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To: Tax-chick

https://www.quora.com/From-how-high-could-a-cat-fall-onto-hard-ground-and-not-be-injured


5,276 posted on 04/06/2019 6:09:24 PM PDT by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Tax-chick

Please see above link. You are correct—cats truly are magical!


5,277 posted on 04/06/2019 6:10:53 PM PDT by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: null and void

Thanks, my dear friend!

:o]


5,278 posted on 04/07/2019 2:08:52 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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To: Covenantor; fanfan; ColdOne; Cyber Liberty; null and void; Tax-chick; Anoreth; Monkey Face; ...

5,279 posted on 04/07/2019 6:28:42 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("President Trump likes Chairman Kim." ~ Sarah Huckabee Sanders)
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To: Tax-chick

The Morning Floofs have just had breakfast, it appears, and are ready for that little “growth nap.”

Good morning. Welcome back! I hope your trip with without mishap and the assorted youth didn’t get on your last nerve.


5,280 posted on 04/07/2019 7:39:37 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The Lord moves in mysterious ways but you don't have to. Please use your blinker. ~~ FB ~~)
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