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’ll change my calendars tomorrow.
I’ll forget... ;o])
‘Night!
You both voted, but didn’t agree, so I went with yet a new option.
That has the merit of brevity.
Looks like Moe is out on the town again!!
:o])
Awww...what a squeeful Morning Floof! I heart dat fing!
Good morning. It’s very cold (46°) and the wind is up, and all I can think of is getting the heater core fixed. Winter is supposed to be over. Cedar City is supposed to drop to 25° before the day starts to warm up.
UNNGH!!!
:o[
Good morning. It’s warm and sticky here. Elen, USMC, has headed off for Okinawa. Anything she has left behind will be nationalized.
Good morning.
Kitteh says, “Pweeze, pweeze, pweeze, PWEEZE can this not be Monday III?”
Or am I projecting?
Good morning. We has made it to 53 on the way to a high of 54.
Best to Ellen. My wife’s uncle survived the infamous landing on Okinawa during WWII as a 17-y-o Corps Medic, then came back to the states to drown trying to fix a water management gate in upstate New York.
Go figure.
Safe journey to Elen, USMC, on her new adventure!
I like the idea of nationalizing belongings. Especially when they aren’t mine! ;o]
Project away because tomorrow is Friday Eve!! :o])
Cold windy and rainy this morning, with a low of 44°. Cedar City was 20°.
Now its overcast, cold and windy and I don’t want to go out in it. I hope tomorrow is better so I don’t freeze on the way to the DMV. I WILL pass the test!!!
Now, to watch some movies...
It is a 50ish degree day with overcasts and gloomies. The radar display shows that the wetness is falling on the ‘real*’ upstate NY up by the border with Canookistan.
The foreguessers however are indicating that wetness will fall from the skies later tonight. That batch appears to be coming in from Ohio. Right now there is rain falling on the B&O diamond at Deshler, Ohio (as verified by the webcam view..)
*Real upstate as opposed to what residents of the Five Boroughs, Long Island, and Westchester consider upstate. To them upstate is any part of NY that is NOT them..
As nasty as it was this early morning, it is equally as beautiful now, though still on the chilly windy side.
I have no idea what tomorrow will bring in the way of weather, so I’ll just wait and be surprised!
Is that even allowed?
Which, the waiting or the being surprised?
Whatever - In NY they have a tax for it.
I sincerely hope thAt this is the truth. I haven’t the fooggiest notion why the Good Lord would deny a homeland to the Jews.
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