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The Pentagon Wants to Make an Army of Virus-Spreading Insects. Scientists Are Concerned.
.livescience.com ^ | October 5, 2018 12:57pm ET | Brandon Specktor

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 ...


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: aphids; boycethompson; cornelluniversity; crispr; darpa; hurricaneutah; insectallies; ithaca; molassesmiasma; monkeyfacerules; newyork; nithaca; ohio; ohiostate; pennstate; pennsylvania; texas; undead; undeadthread; undeadthreadhere; uoftexasataustin; workingdogs
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To: Tax-chick

Mexico had a birthday? I would have sent a card.


6,541 posted on 05/31/2019 2:09:44 PM PDT by ArGee (Celebrate diversity! Excellence is out.)
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To: ArGee

Heh, good one. It was a nice party at the park, but they didn’t have Mexican food.


6,542 posted on 05/31/2019 4:47:37 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Be like Kendrick, Brendan, and Riley.)
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To: Tax-chick; Darksheare

Time to move the castle. Candidate posted earlier today.


6,543 posted on 05/31/2019 4:49:57 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Jet Jaguar

The Sistine Chapel one, or do you mean another?


6,544 posted on 05/31/2019 4:51:22 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Be like Kendrick, Brendan, and Riley.)
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To: Tax-chick

That one. I just found it and pinged Darksheare.


6,545 posted on 05/31/2019 4:55:32 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Jet Jaguar

I pinged it to some people earlier, too. Maybe we can hop over!


6,546 posted on 05/31/2019 5:02:58 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Be like Kendrick, Brendan, and Riley.)
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To: Tax-chick

Posting from my phone. I could not do the moving day pics. And I don’t have the pinglist. We can wait til Darks sees the message.


6,547 posted on 05/31/2019 5:06:55 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Jet Jaguar

If there’s a groundswell of support, Darks will get to it when he can.


6,548 posted on 05/31/2019 5:07:52 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Be like Kendrick, Brendan, and Riley.)
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To: Tax-chick

Agreed


6,549 posted on 05/31/2019 5:10:42 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Jet Jaguar; Darksheare; NoCmpromiz

I have the ping list on my home page so if you want to use it, feel free to do so. You could also get a message to Darks by way of No Cmpromiz.


6,550 posted on 06/01/2019 2:05:16 AM PDT by Monkey Face (The soul usually knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.)
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To: Tax-chick; sionnsar; abigailsmybaby; A CA Guy; airborne; Aloysius88; Altariel; Americanwolf; ...

Moving day

6,551 posted on 06/01/2019 10:02:30 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: sionnsar; abigailsmybaby; A CA Guy; airborne; Aloysius88; Altariel; Americanwolf; Anoreth; ...
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

This is the END of the
Spawn of the Undead Thread: The October - May Chronicles

Join us at
Spawn of the Undead Thread: The June Chronicles redux


6,552 posted on 06/01/2019 10:08:21 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Darksheare
:^) Thanks!

6,553 posted on 06/01/2019 10:25:51 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: ArGee
I can’t wait until this team learns how to do its job.

How long do you think it will take?

6,554 posted on 06/01/2019 12:53:37 PM PDT by Silentgypsy (Call an addiction hotline and say you're hooked on phonics.)
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To: Darksheare

We’ve been hung out to dry!!!


6,555 posted on 06/04/2019 10:45:29 AM PDT by Monkey Face (I just let my mind wander and it didn't come back.)
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To: Silentgypsy
How long do you think it will take?

If I were truly in charge, instead of holding the place of the guy who ran off to get married, about a month.

6,556 posted on 06/04/2019 11:43:00 AM PDT by ArGee (Celebrate diversity! Excellence is out.)
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To: Monkey Face

Uh oh, wha happen?


6,557 posted on 06/04/2019 1:03:06 PM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Darksheare; Jim Robinson

The new UT was pulled, so I FReepmailed Jim Robinson and he restored it for us, so it truly is Undead!!


6,558 posted on 06/05/2019 1:35:23 AM PDT by Monkey Face (I just let my mind wander and it didn't come back.)
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To: Monkey Face; Darksheare; Tax-chick
"The new UT was pulled, so I FReepmailed Jim Robinson and he restored it for us, so it truly is Undead!!"

I suspect he did that only to keep all us troublemakers under proper scrutiny.

6,559 posted on 06/06/2019 9:30:17 AM PDT by NicknamedBob (If you can't do something well, you won't do anything good.)
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To: NicknamedBob

He actually answered very quickly! So we have it back! :o])


6,560 posted on 06/06/2019 12:26:09 PM PDT by Monkey Face (Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. Thomas S Monson)
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