The Delicious Charbroiled Smell of Laboratory Meat
:eek: The Delicious Charbroiled Smell of Laboratory Meat
By Jonathan Kolber
October 23, 2007
I’ll admit it. I have a weakness for the delicious smell of charcoal-broiled meat. Even during a two-year stint as a vegetarian, that desire never went away.
Those who refrain from eating meat for ethical or health reasons will soon have an interesting alternative.
AlterNet reports, with considerable fanfare and some hyperbole, that Dutch scientists are successfully growing "cultured meat" in laboratories. The current price is several thousand dollars per pound — out of reach of all but the most wealthy of epicures.
Their aim is to bring it down to several dollars per pound, where it will be cost competitive with meat that's grown the old-fashioned way. Estimates are that this could happen within five years.
While the article uses words such as "horrifying" to describe this possibility, it also does a reasonably accurate job of describing the science and implications.
Essentially, certain stem cells that can become muscle cells are placed on "scaffolding." As they grow on this scaffolding, they assume a certain shape. They are immersed in a fluid that gives them the same nutrients blood would provide if the cells were living inside a body.
An electrical current or mechanical stretching is used to simulate exercise. Voilà! You have ready-to-eat meat.
NASA funded tests in pursuit of a better source of protein for astronauts. It engaged Touro College biologists Morris Benjaminson and James Gilchriest to grow goldfish. (Why this was selected as opposed to say, salmon, was never explained.)
