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 ...
Happy Friday, everyone.
Off to a meeting in just a bit.
Reminds me:
An optimist sees a glass half full
A pessimist sees a glass half empty
An engineer sees a glass that’s not being used efficiently
I hate fixing my own more.
Six A M is good for coffee. Been drinking a blend with pumpkin spice for the holidays. A new little lady is scheduled to arrive early next month. I and better half cannot wait. Christmas is coming and if am lucky and can catch Santa before hes off my roof then maybe can get more grandchildren. am going to have to catch Santa to receive my wish. The milk and cookies have been stale the last few years and think am on naughty list.
I hope it’s much better than average, meeting-wise. I’m off to practice short vowels with Kathleen, again.
Congratulations in advance on the arrival! I bought pumpkin spice bagels for the Offspring, but I take my coffee without additional flavors.
May the blessings for all to be great for you and yours be arriving forever and always
Help desk: did you try turning the glass off and back on?
IT tech(coding): this glass is poorly coded.
IT tech(user interface): this glass needs Java pop-up windows.
Luminously gorgeous—thank you!
Happy Friday and have a great weekend, everyone!
Hugs SG. Prayers for you and yours and may there be fresh cold milk and warm cookies for Santa or Ill be joined on the naughty list
LOL! FWIW, Korean is probably more brain exercise than calc (I speak from personal experience).
You are terrific!
You misspelled “horrible”.
Lol!
;-)
Someone should tell Sally that if things ever got serious between her and her current boyfriend, the parents would never accept the grandchild. During the Korean war (”conflict”) the babies born to Korean women and American men were always placed into orphanages. They don’t like mixing races.
She would be better, indeed, learning calculus. </soap box
Sylvia just brought me a green chili-chicken tamale. I was just going to fix some cheese and crackers (being out of fruit again) so this is good for a change. I don’t care for green chili anything, but these are homemade, and quite good. I just don’t like the heat to burn the taste of the food out of my mouth.
She had gone to the doctor this morning, so she was late getting to the ramada. Bella almost made Sylvia run in her haste to say hello to me. She smelled the kitty treats (she doesn’t like dog treats!) and was really funny trying to coax me to give them to her! Sweet little dog. And Sylvia jerks her around so much. :o[
"Terrific" started out meaning the same thing as horrible.
Hollywood has been teaching us the wrong side of stuff for a long time.
I prefer to think of “terrific” as a derivative of terra (i.e., as great as the world).
Dear n2i, we always have cold milk and cookies or some reasonable facsimile here (today, it’s pecan pie, courtesy of Mr. Sg, bless him).
Good no chance of being on Santas naughty list for you two. Could you all put in a nice word for me with Santa. More Grandchildren, please
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.