Washington Post October 4, 2018
The program funded by DARPA has a warm and fuzzy name: “Insect Allies.” The bugs would carry genetically engineered viruses that could be deployed rapidly if critical crops such as corn or wheat became vulnerable to a drought, a natural blight or a sudden attack by a biological weapon. The concept envisions the viruses making genetic modifications that protect the plants immediately, during a single growing season. A team of skeptical scientists and legal scholars published an article in the journal Science arguing that the Insect Allies program opens a “Pandora’s box” and involves technology that “may be widely perceived as an effort to develop biological agents for hostile purposes and their means of delivery.” …read more. Related information , Open Access RELATED ARTICLE
Scientists are critical of a DARPA program that they say could turn three types of insects — leafhoppers, white flies and aphids — into a biological army. (iStock/The Washington Post)