"You WILL play neonball wif me, hoomin!"
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 luck! I hope she gets to stay out for a while!
Happy Easter! Cute cartoon!
He is Risen, indeed!
It’s now sunny here. I hope that gets to you, soon.
Happy Easter, Sandy, and all your cats!
A very Blessed Easter to all!
Had my trip to Mesa not been in such a hurry, and had I been in my own vehicle, I would have stopped to visit.
I apologize to both of you, Libre ou Mort and Not A Snowbird. I hope you can forgive me!
‘Face
Happy Easter!
you too! and yes it is...
Nice here, but a little cold. All the music events went adequately. Bill the Son has come over to hang around and eat. Kathleen went home from church with some friends - an Easter egg hunt at their apartment complex was mentioned - and they’ll bring her home later.
In for SOB, low BP, dizzy headache, pressure pain in chest, pain in jaw.
EKG, X-ray, CAT scan, blood work, echo cardiogram, stress test, poking, prodding, grilling...
Congestive heart failure, very early and quite treatable
Highlight for diagnosis...
Oh my goodness. How is she otherwise? I mean, her mind-set.
Oh, Nully, I hope she’s OK and that the diagnosis isn’t as dire as the testing would indicate.
So I’ll say some prayers for you both.
"You WILL play neonball wif me, hoomin!"
The Morning Floof looks very determined to play neon-ball!!
Good morning. I just sorted the clothes and I think I have a whole lot of laundry, since I didn’t wash clothes last week when I got home.
It’s chilly out again. This weather is on-again-off-again. I want some heat!!
And I’m off for now.
It’s a little chilly outside (and inside) here this morning. No Youth are up except for Pat, who hasn’t completed an assignment that’s due for school today.
I hope you had a Happy Easter, Face.
Ours was a bit more filled with family drama than we would have liked it to be, but we all survived.
My friend, whose adult daughter was shown on Instagram standing nude on top of a mountain in Utah, didn’t fare so well. He survived, but he’s much worse for well.
And, we’re off!
Well, I’m off. The rest of you may be normal.
Anyway, Happy Monday.
We're all part of the distribution.
To whom and for what purpose is not up for discussion.
It had been long enough between laundering that I forgot how to set the dryers. I had all my sleep shirts and all the clothes from the trip and for whatever reason, I didn’t check the settings on the dryers, so most everything but the sheets and towels are damp. UNNGH! (I decided to dry the sleep shirts in the dryer this time because I don’t have room to hang them AND the clothes!)
My back was killing me by the time I got home, so I opted to wait 30 minutes for the next round of morphine to kick in. (I did NOT like what I saw in the x-rays.)
Now, I’m going to put an episode of “Midsomer” in the laptop and maybe it will feel like a normal Monday.
Thank you, ArGee! I wore a silk “broomstick” skirt that has been hanging in my closet for two years, and a matching top that was only a year old, so I got several unexpected compliments. They went a long way to make my Easter a good one.
A couple of people offered condolences for my brother’s passing, but even that was good. No Easter bunny visited, though! ;o]
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