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 have to say I missed that one. I just looked at the date to make sure it was today’s kitteh I was replying to and it hit me.
Right here, between the eyes.
OK, so Mrs. ArGee and I finally sent the next lease back with a “thanks but no thanks” response.
It wasn’t the rent increase, which was surprisingly modest.
It wasn’t the apartment. It’s actually quite nice.
It wasn’t the building staff. Very nice people, really.
It wasn’t having to put up with NYC’s endless noise.
No, we finally decided to leave when AOC told us she was only joking about the 12 years thing. We can NOT live in a city that would elect her as a representative.
I know what you’re gonna say. “All the things Putz De Blasio has done and you’re leaving for THAT?”
That was, as they say, the drip that caused the bucket to overflow. And I do mean drop.
That woman is her own meme.
That being established, where do you think the hold-up is? You don't think it's corruption, right? Are there chain-of-command factors that inhibit communication? Is there a way to approach the corporate-culture process issues? Is it a matter of, "I've already made my decision; don't confuse me with the facts"? This is mystifying.
It’s WAAAAYYY past my time to get parallel to the deck, but I just wanted to let all y’all know that my router came today, and I’m up and online!!
So I’ll see youse early in the AM!
I’ve been running behind since I woke up...go figger!
Glad you got your router! Pat got his last grade today, a B in American History. That gives him two As and two Bs, a successful semester.
He would like to spend the summer playing computer games, except when he’s at camp, but instead, he’ll be doing SAT drills.
Will you be able to work remotely? Is your property within a commutable distance? Or are you really flying (fleeing?) the coop?
Yayyyy, your router came!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you considered living in suburban Boring, NC?
YOU’RE BA-ACK! This calls for a post!
The more so seeing as I haven’t been around since March.
But I have good reasons:
https://als.lbl.gov/
The video featured on this page is the project I’m working on. Several of my co-workers are seen swarming about in this time-lapse sequence. Beyond the slabs of precisely-machined granite — 21 tons, in all — there’s a rectangular platform with a round stage on it. There will be a sample chamber set on this stage, and researchers are going to bombard it with a narrow band of light. The reflected beam will travel through a spectrometer assembly and then out a positionable arm to a detector.
What you see, here, is the supporting structure. The vacuum components, pumps, gauges, valves, controllers, and the rest
will all be mounted onto these supporting frames.
Anyway....LOTTA uber-cool stuff going on in my little corner of the Universe. But I’ll try to poke my nose in a bit more often.
WOW!!
Uber-cool is the right word, for sure!
I wondered where you had got to. Now I now, and it’s a worthy excuse! ;o]
The morning Floof is tip-toeing through the primroses!
Good morning. I have an appointment in St George and after it, or before it, depending on her driving time, I’ll meet up with the friend who moved farther north than I did, from the same general area I moved from! She has been in AZ visiting her mother and has “something” for me. She is a quilter by trade, so if that “something” isn’t a quilt or lap robe, I will be surprised.
Anyway, depending on her timing, we’ll meet up at the thrift store in St George, or the Walmart here. I’m looking forward to the visit, even though it will be brief, as she will have another four hours driving when she leaves here.
I really admire her.
Good morning! I’ve already been to feed Eddie the Rottweiler and let him out. We’ll go back after Weight Watchers, 10:30 or so, for his real walk.
I have. Mrs. ArGee hasn’t. That’s a discussion for a later time. The next move will be near her octogenarian parents.
Uber-cool indeed. But will it solve globull warming?
I.e., can it make AOC and AlGore shut up?
Good morning, all. I see we’ve survived Monday the 13th.
Happy Tuesday.
It didn't seem quite so involved and frenetic when Tony Stark built one of those in a cave, out of scrap.
I’ll be heading for St George, shortly, and since the place I’m going is on the way to all the other places I’ve tried to go, I shouldn’t have too much trouble finding my way into the complex.
The sun is coming in the living room window again, and I think I could get used to it!
Now I’ll feed the birds and make sure they have all they need during my absence of maybe two hours. ;o]
That makes sense.
Good luck. I’m back from Weight Watchers and Eddie’s walk. Naptime is approaching, but I think I’ll watch an archaeology video first, so I’ll feel like we’ve learned something.
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