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 ...
What a coincidence! I wonder how many will fall for it? I can hardly wait to see how far it goes... ;o]
We learned it in the first grade (five/six y.o.) as part of our “enrichment” before the gubmint got hold of the education system. That also included learning how to dance (in the winter when it was too cold or the snow was too deep for us to go outside) and learning how to shoot rifles. Not to mention shop and home economics in the upper grades...
Anyway, it was a fun song, and I think we even had a play that had the Teddy Bear Picnic as a main theme... These days, I wish I could have seen it from the parents point of view!
*tagline*
Reports have come in about A Tuesday seen heading upstate in the back of a Ford pickup. Accompanied by a Dog and a Cat.
Snow leopards...party animals
I remember Moondog. He usually hung out near CBS.
Guys knew how to dress in those days.
Kathleen’s favorite.
My calendar says it’s Wednesday. We’ve done more gardening. Now I have to get Tom the Son out of bed. He has to leave by 3:00 to get his brothers from Envirothon.
When I'm struggling with that I just change my mind. It's easier than cleaning out the old one.
Strange how what happened?
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I can prove I was in a meeting with some Russians who were trying to steal the 2020 elections for that new Democratic Socialist candidate, Vladimir Putin, when that rumor got started.
Please tell us that kitteh didn’t eat the vegetation.
I love hearing success stories! Good for them!
Goo daftern oon, y'all!
Ooh—someone to party with!
I’m beginning to like snow leopards, too, because of their massive paws and lethal claws.
I was preoccupied trying to find a couple of websites, and then reading articles on them, and then I sorted out some CDs that didn’t have hard cases and put them in the hard ones, and … and … and it looks like now is almost time for bed.
Oddly enough, I was able to call and reschedule my visit with the ophthalmologist for next Wednesday at 0800, so I’ll have a nice ride on the old road, hoping not too many commuters decide to take the same route. But oops! I forgot to ask about the co-pay, as things here are so much more expensively surprising than in NV.
Since none of the DVD players will work, I’ve decided that the two that were bad needed to be junked so they don’t confuse me, and the last one isn’t working because of the same problem I had in NV — it had something to do with the cable service. Hopefully, one of Sharon’s friends can troubleshoot for not a lot of money.
The PC won’t play the movies for me, so since all the movies I currently have are due tomorrow, I won’t get any more. There is no reason to, since I can’t watch them.
Sorry. My brain quit. Ping to 5177, I think. Whatever my last one was.
Ta-DAH!!!!
The mystery of the “So many books, so little time” coffee mug has been solved!! It came from my “New” nephew and his wife!!! And they haven’t seen any pics because I don’t have their phone numbers! Must have been something I said about books...
OK. Now I can sleep in peace...
‘Nite, all! <3
My parents had a 78 recording of that but I don’t recognize some of the verses.
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