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 ...
GR-O-O-WF!!! }:o[
Good morning. Happy Wednesday.
I’m having a hard time believing it’s this close to Easter.
Of course, my F-I-L, who’s Russian Orthodox, tells me I still have a week.
If I owe them money, don’t they owe me services?
OK, I’ll pay my share of the military but I don’t owe Congress one thin dime. Paying those folks a salary and staffs and such so they can go on TV and blame each other and the President. The whole thing should be dissolved.
And I want a refund from the DOJ for squirreling away 3 years.
Stupid government.
Good morning. I got up promptly when my alarm went off. Maybe I’ll get a nap this afternoon, after several alarums and excursions. Tom will be picking Elen, USMC, up from the airport this morning.
Looks like I have about half an hour before the next crisis. That’s long enough for Kathleen to do some phonics.
I woke up in time to tell myself I wasn’t getting up at 5:15 to run today and snoozed until 6, when I normally get up on a no-run day.
So far this week I have run into no flesh-eating storage media. Also, the rats have been quiet.
There’s just the work.
A day without flesh-eating storage media and rats is preferable to one with said atrocities.
And with that, some laborers and I are off to church to put an insert in the church bulletin for the Stewardship Commission, of which I am still the Chairlady until July 1.
Gorgeous—thank you!
*sniff-sob*
And a rollicking good time will be had by all!
Wondered where you were.
G’orning, y’all!
There are disturbances in the force lately.
I think that's just bovine methane expulsion. Wondered where you were.
Well, I was at Jury Duty on Monday, then I had to repair all the damage yesterday from banging my head against the wall. Fortunately, my head is made of sterner stuff.
Whatchoo beenupto? How's Mr. SG doing with his bruised ribs and ego?
It is cold in my neck of the woods. The wind is cold, right out of the north, caressing Pine Valley Mountain and its snow before it reaches us, who are trying to have spring.
My phone has gotten really wonky since my trip. One of my nieces decided to set up a group for texting each other on the way there, and during the visit, and I didn’t have all the phone numbers, so my phone would alert, but no text message was there. Now, its still doing it, and I don’t know how to get out of it.
It also shows the weather with a clock but the clock is on PDT, even though the weather icon is Hurricane. I don’t know how to change that, either. That’s what I get for leaving town on a whim.
Weird stuff. I think phones are out to get us. I had a little nap, after all my morning’s trials. Now I’m going to have a cup of tea. I got a new cup at The Salvation Army. It shows a cat sitting on a table looking down at a broken vase; goes with my t-shirt of, “This is why we can’t have nice things.”
I also got a blue skirt and a gray sweater that isn’t my size but is 100% merino wool so I couldn’t resist. I can wear it for a layer in cold weather.
Elen, USMC, is safely home and sleeping on the couch. She had a long couple of days. The original plan was that she would go down to the Marines office about 4:00 - Tom could take her on his way to work - and I would get her after Kathleen’s riding lesson. However, that plan may be Overtaken By Events.
I’ll check in with Tom before we leave, so he can tell me what happens.
Thanks for asking. Mr. Sg is scheduled for some studies in the morning that will hopefully shed some light on the reasons for a few of his issues lately. It’s been challenging. His rib pain had decreased considerably but I never know when he’s being stoic or truthful. He does seem more mobile, though.
I need skirts so maybe I should take the old road into St George and hit the big Deseret Industries store to see if I can find what I need. The local thrift store seems to cater to leftovers from estate sales of the rich and tasteless.
It depends on how I feel, as my skirts are OK for winter but not for summer. I haven’t shopped for a long time.
When I got back from AZ I was thinking very seriously of getting my summer clothes swapped out, but this cold snap has proved to me that I need to wait. So instead of eight months of summer and four of winter, it seems we have eight months of winter and four of spring. *sigh* (I should have applied to AZ.)
Hi, Elen, USMC!! Good to see you home. Enjoy your leave and good luck in your future!
Sounds like a good plan for a day when you feel like the weather is finally warm. Or maybe you could find some 100% merino wool sweaters! It seems like just the thing to pull over one’s pajamas on a day that’s too cold to go outside, when you’re pretending travel videos about Fiji are educational.
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