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 ...
We didn’t have popcorn. I wonder what you could add to bacon grease that would make it taste better. Maybe brown sugar?
My mother did that with strawberries, too.
That was very nice of you. I hope it makes her happy!
Back from a long afternoon of church and additional excursions. Frank got home from his friend’s house with just enough time for me to wash him before we left. “Why can’t I take a shower?” he whined. “Because you take too long and you don’t get clean enough!”
Pat is home from the Diocesan Youth Convocation, where I assume he was a contributor. “We talked about stuff,” he said ... perhaps about how the church can better reach the space-alien segment of our youth.
More people are supposed to be home 6-ish.
She told me she had to hug me and I told her to consider herself hugged every time she put it on. I still have no idea why I gave it to her, except that she’s the first person ever to go out of her way to compliment something I’ve made.
Maybe she’ll wear it next fall and winter. Of course, today and tomorrow, its going to be over 20° cooler that it was on Saturday and Sunday. Unngh.
New Nephew Bill emailed me a photo, yesterday, of the Red Bluff (CA) Fire Department Band and who was the bandleader? My dad! I don’t know when it was taken, maybe in the 19-teens to 1930. He didn’t say when or where, but I printed it out!
I take it all the peeps made it safely home, and that your mother is safely at her next destination.
To the best of my knowledge, everyone is where they should be.
Looks like an Ansel Adams kitty-cat.
This Morning Floof is an acrobat!
Good morning. I’m done with the laundry and other morning things, and I still have dishes to do. I plan on freezing the spaghetti because its too good to waste.
I’ll call Walmart when the automotive department opens and find out about the tires. I might be able to get two this payday, and that means I can get the other two next payday. I think. I will wait to see how the day goes. It sounds really good now, but...
Kitty lives in Germany, according to the poster. I just had to explain to James and Vlad about a “radiator.”
Good morning. All cats are acrobats, at least compared to me. Jake stayed out all night, so he’s in bed. Ditto for Tom.
We’re short a car because Elen is still in High Point, so I’ll drive Pat and Sally to school in a little while.
Good morning, all. Mappy Hunday.
It may have been buried in all your local news, but Silver Springs, MD survived my assault. Howsomever, I don’t think I’ve ever seen traffic like I had coming home, even when I was commuting into/out-of DC. It was wall-to-wall from where I got onto I-95 at the Beltway to above Trenton, NJ.
And what you don't know can't hurt you, right?
Them, maybe, but not you.
I like your story better than mine. I thought the kitteh had been caught in Thanos’ snap.
I’m glad you made it home safely. Most of the people have been visually verified, and I phoned Elen this morning at what I consider a civilized hour for family members (6:45 a.m.) to discuss the schedule which includes her having the car back here by 5:00 p.m.
So you were near my old neck of the woods...from which I escaped some 50 years ago to pursue a career in NYC. Things have changed enormously from when I could make the cross town trip from NE border to Georgetown in 25 mins of a pleasant virtually stop free drive on tree lined streets.
Yes, Walmart will mount and balance the tires for a “small fee” of $15 per tire. So there’s that. I can live to ponder something else another day!
DVDs are due at the library this morning, so at 1000 I will return some and keep some and maybe get another.
Meanwhile, I’ll watch some “New Tricks” and start on another dish cloth. :o]
We have a trip to the library planned later, in conjunction with picking up Pat and Sally from school. That gives me about an hour to get Something Useful done.
I’ve done two useful things, laundry and dishes, and its very dreary out. No rain, yet, but I’m sure as soon as I head for the library, it will pucker up.
It would be a good day to curl up under a warm throw and read or take a nap. Nap sounds very good!
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