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 ...
I had to drive back home to DC from NYC due to mom’s struggle with cancer. Left after work on a friday, 70hr work week, for a tiring drive at night. Hitting the DC Beltway, I spotted a glowing set of Disney Land like towers which because of the curve seemed to be rising in the dark from the middle of the road in the distance...for some moments I thought I was having fatigue hallucinations.
I wasn’t going to go to the library until tomorrow, but I changed my mind. I got the four Horatio Hornblower DVDs, season three of Father Brown, season two and three of Death In Paradise, one of Midsomer, and the final season of Grantchester. I didn’t want to be bored for the next three days.
I got the all-occasion cards from my Real Brother, including a larger one that he used as a birthday card, a birthday card from my FReepin’ sister, and a letter from a dear FReepin’ FRiend. I don’t have enough room on my desk to prop them all!!
Anyway, it was a good day for mail swag!
I also finished a shawl I was making for one of the gals at church, and now I’ll get back to the replacement shawl I was making for myself.
Oh, yes. I got Charlie’s letter written and mailed. He called yesterday, just as I was coming out of the ophthalmologist’s office, but I told him I’d call him when I got home. Which I did. He called to tell me we lost two more people at Espy. I didn’t know either one all that well, but I didn’t make friends there. Charlie is the exception, but that’s probably because he doesn’t whine and doesn’t smoke. Anyway, he feels he has to call me and tell me all the “news” about the remodeling and the deaths. And how poorly the Vegas Golden Knights are doing in the NHL standings.
So, anyway, it’s time for me to head for the barn and watch the Blanket Show. I’ll see all y’all tomorrow. :o])
I've seen two. The one in Salt Lake, and the temple in D.C. before it was consecrated.
Believe me, they spared no effort to make people think it was designed to be representative of a bit of Heaven on Earth.
Impressive as the experience was, however, I'm still in peril for the final destination of my stubborn, intransigent, but poetically inspired soul.
I’m glad you got stuff done! The Cub Scouts have a booth for recruiting at a festival this weekend, so I’ll be out in the heat lots and lots.
It’s very nice of you to support beer sharing among separated brethren, as it were. Cheers!
Good call having it removed, tho. My Dad didn’t get to his in time and spent several agonizing spells moaning on the sofa hugging a heating pad before they could get his surgery scheduled. I don’t recall a shift in diet afterward; it seemed to me we ate the same menu as ever.
Sometimes, the spires can be a beacon. When my friend’s late mother would go to Vegas, she knew the way home by the temple spires, as his house was located almost “under” them. And from where I lived in Henderson, I could see those same spires until the trees in the temple neighborhood got too tall.
Wherever a temple is located, its unmistakable. One just can’t miss it. But that’s the idea, I think.
Be sure to wear your big sun hat while you’re out in the heat today and drink plenty of water!!
Both of those things. Also, I’m going to take food.
The Morning Floofs are very floofy! I want them!
Good idea on the food, too. I’d like to spend a day in the sun. If we had any sun. Yesterday was an anomaly in that it was cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon. Today will be cloudy, and then Monday through Thursday, we’ll have rain again. *sigh*
Now I need to start writing letters and get a couple of thank you cards in the mail. And then I have to work on the replacement shawl. And watch movies!
I hope your day is a good one, though no doubt it will be long and tiring. Take care of you!
They came in a set.
DP and I have choir practice at 10:30. Tom will drive PatJamesVlad over to the park to help Gloria set up for the fair, which starts at 11:00. I’ll get over there after choir.
I’m going to make a salad with chickpeas and put in garlic salt, so I don’t get hyponatremia.
These little guys have just taken cuteness to the nth—thank you!
The gray one is simply impossible!
Jake has fallen asleep on the Wall Street Journal editorial page, so it’s obviously time for me to get going on something productive.
But the black one with those huge button eyes....
I suspect that is something more eldritch than an average kitten.
Interesting point....
Wow. Sleepy heads!
I’ve had my shower so I’m going in to make the bed, now. Maybe when I get back, I’ll see a floofy face before me!! :o]
AfterMorning, TC.
:)
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.