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 ...
Oh, that’s good, Covenantor! Thanks! :o])
I would have had a nice nap with Jake, but Tom set the fire alarm off cooking his lunch, the giant nuisance. I assigned him several yardwork tasks.
I sorted all my music today. Tomorrow I’ll need to sort it again at a higher level of detail.
Up and down, actually. Hope you and yours are well.
Toward the end of last month I got one of those garden/rose/flower/greenthing catalogs. They offered a ‘deal’ on five assorted roses for a good price and stated that they would be shipped at the proper planting time for ‘your area’. So - I ordered them. We have lost several roses to winters past - it’s too early to see if we lost any more this past winter - so I figured this was a cheap, er, I mean cost effective way to replace some of them.
Knowing the weather here I know we cannot safely plant anything that could be damaged by frost until at least mid May, but to be safe it’s really Memorial Day and after. If you check on line for the average date of last frost in this area you find it is May 10 to May 20. So it was a bit of a shock to be notified that they had shipped my order on March 26. FedEx delivered them on March 28.
The roses are well packaged and look very healthy. They are potted and in foliage and enclosed in a cardboard carton with a window. I would be extremely happy with this order if it had arrived in mid May. However..
I am now faced with the task of keeping these really healthy looking roses alive for another month and a half minimum until I can safely plant them outdoors. I already know from past experience that at least two of our felines will think they have been given a salad if I open the cartons to give the roses needed light and water.
I sent the nursery customer service people a friendly email expressing my displeasure at such an early shipment and inquired whether they would replace the roses when (not if) the inevitable demise occurs.
It’s like the nursery intentionally sent these roses off to the killing fields.
Oh, NoC, that is purrfect!!
:o])
Morning Floof looks a little on the sad side this morning.
Good morning. I’ll be going to Walmart soon, and if the lights are on in the garden section, I’ll see if they have the small plants I want. I have narrowed them down to five. I could have ordered them but the shipping was almost as much as the plants, and I figured I could get potting soil and the other stuff with the money, instead.
The manager posted a notice on the door that stated we will be having an inspection on the 8th, and that gives me a while to get the stuff put into the black file. It seems I just shift things from one place to another, because I lack the room I had in NV. *sigh*
Welp, I’m off.
I hope it all goes well. There's nothing worse than having your music out of sorts.
The only one I can still do involves cards, and I don’t have any here in Manhattan. Doing tricks with the deck in the solitaire app on my phone just doesn’t cut it.
No pun intended.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Tuesday / Monday Part Deux / Friday Eve Eve Eve.
Is that a echo?
Good morning. I was worn out before I ever left for Walmart, and it took me a good 90 minutes to get done. I just kept going back and forth to the front, (sales racks) the back, (electronics, home office) the right side (food) the left side (automotive, sports, garden) and back to the front again where I checked out with this monstrous cart and the guy behind me had three items. :o[ If he had been 30 seconds sooner, I would have asked the checker to take him first.
The garden section doesn’t open until 0700. So the little bitty plants will have to wait.
T-c just sent me a couple of pics of the “85% freezing rain” she was met with coming out of Weight Watchers! ICK!!!
It was snow. I was unpleasantly surprised. However, we are home in one piece and don’t have to go out again until late afternoon.
Thank you for precious kitteh!
Pun taken, anyway.
G’orning, y’all!
Wanna bet Trudeau is envious of those eyebrows?
Maybe it will have melted by then.
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