Word: aphid
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...that computers are gigantic monsters ready to turn on their creators. I, for one, am perfectly willing to believe that the computer will remain a docile slave. But whose slave is it going to be? As far as I can see, the only people who will not lead an aphid-like existence in the future will be a very small group of scientific experts whose exclusive knowledge and interpretation of the mysteries of the Unfathomable Machine will give them powers far greater than those held by any similar elite in history. I once asked a brilliant mathematician what sort...
...past few years, both the Air and Army units have received quotas large enough to admit all men who wanted to enroll in the advance course. But from 1947 until this year, no more that to cadets in either group had aphid to enter in any one year...
...long, cool, wet spring favored aphid reproduction and killed off many of its natural enemies (notably ladybugs). The aphid, or plant louse, a squashy insect usually about the size of a pinhead, is not rated as a big-league pest in the U.S. But its Ohio holiday was only a sample of what the aphid might do if it were let alone. If all her offspring lived, a single female could girdle the earth with her progeny in a single season...
...aphid, feeding on leaf juices, secretes a sweet liquid called "honey-dew" to which ants are very partial. Some varie ties of ants keep herds of aphids, like cows, and milk them by stroking the abdomen gently with their antennae; a well-fed aphid may yield 48 drops of "milk...
...return, ants carry aphids to good pastures, feed them, guard their eggs, fight off their enemies. Even so, aphid mortality is very high. Only its prodigious birthrate enables the species to survive...