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 ...
And we have made it to another Friday eve.
This taking over is a lot of work. Of course, it doesn’t help that the Tech Lead is taking a few weeks off to get married and I have volunteered to run his shop for him while he’s gone.
(Or it does help take over. It doesn’t help with the workload.)
If her enormous mess is made up of stuff she considers “hers” you could always move it all out to the sidewalk with a sign that says “Free to a good home.”
I have several times threatened to put young persons and “their” stuff on the curb with a sign that says, “Will Do Nothing For Food!” Well, Bill’s said, “Will Look Pretty For Food,” but although Drama Queen is naturally gorgeous, she’s not nearly as presentable as Bill, due (I believe) to having no taste.
People pick up all kinds of rubbish on Bulk Waste Day ...
Best wishes for the takeover. I really need to go to Walmart now.
I watched a “Midsomer” and then realized my back was hurting (weather, I’m sure) and decided I’d take some measurements and then get ready to do what I was planning to do. So far, so good, on that.
Since I have a $5 off card for Ace Hardware for my birthday, I thought I might get a couple of planks and do a makeshift desk. Then when the finances allow, I can get some storage drawers and case to rest them on, since I will need a place to put the stuff that’s in the drawers.
I just need more room so the place doesn’t look so cluttered.
Ooh Ahh indeed... I shall raise a glass of mead to your venture later today when it is a more socially acceptable time of the afternoon to do so...
It’s almost 11:00 p.m. in Indonesia.
Envision the end result. Eschew personalities.
If the end is worth the effort of all involved, then it doesn't matter how many are involved, or who gets the credit for what gets done.
At the end of it, you will either have been successful or unsuccessful. That will be the time to count and list casualties.
When I was a kid, we were told by no less a personage than Davy Crockett, to "be sure you're right, then go ahead". That seems to be pertinent advice.
Do you recall “I Don’t Want No More of Army Life”?
They say that in the army
Movies are mighty fine
You ask for Betty Grable and
They give you Frankenstein.
That precious little face can melt hearts!
I hear ya. One weekend, I took my camping cot and a pillow in to work.
G’daft ernoon, y’all!
Next on the list, after opposable thumbs, will be lasers shooting out of their freakin' heads.
Wasn't that a movie?
Dafternoon, epople. Eddie the Rotteweiler's family is home, so I don't have to go back again today. He's a good dog.
Is that home-crafted mead, or have you a quality supplier?
Yeah, one of the spy-spoof Austin Powers movies. I haven't watched them.
Lasers shooting out from the forehead, though, that's a good idea. I could use it myself. (Hmm, checking ... oh wait, I did! -- From Reaction!)
"Pearl decided to test one of Brian’s auxiliary capabilities when she heard an insect buzzing in his room. She was not about to allow an insect to spread a possible disease in her nice clean laboratory.
She opened Brian’s eyes and began to track the noise. Soon she spotted it, and switched to telescopic mode of perception. Tracking the insect, she identified it as a mosquito.
Brian’s thin eyebrows furrowed for a moment as tension built internally. Suddenly, a bright beam of red light erupted from the infant eyes, impinging on the doomed insect. It literally exploded as the energy was absorbed by its dark surface, fluttering through the air as a mist of microscopic parts.
Pearl checked Brian’s eyes for any signs of overheating or distress. All tissues appeared to have weathered the test without damage. Satisfied, Pearl closed Brian’s new eyes and allowed the body to drift into sleep."
Okay, it wasn't his forehead, that would have been noticeable.
Pearl used a similar technique, but she was an android.
"At that moment, Pearl roused from her stupor, and stood up straight. She studied the two men for a few seconds, and then, out of the darkness, twin beams of violet energy blazed forth from her eyes with a crack and sizzle as she directed her attention to first one, then the other sentry. Both men collapsed, twitching.".
Technically, a form of taser, using laser-ionized paths through the air instead of wires. But you get the point, (or don't get the points, that is.)
I even got the pun at the end, Bob. One in a while, I understand the science-y stuff, even when it’s not about soil or trees.
Well, in my stories I write about science-y stuff, but mostly I just make things up.
Like all good dramatists.
Although it's almost evening-I spent 5 hours on public transportation today.
:(
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