Lab Chops: Scientists Create Artificial Pork
December 2nd, 2009
Scientists in the Netherlands managed to create artificial meat using muscle cells extracted from a live pig combined with “a broth of other animal products”, which allowed the muscle cells to multiply and form muscle tissue. Yummy. But the scientists still have quite a ways to go from producing bacon in a petri dish.
The artificial meat is described as “soggy pork”: “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there”, says Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University.
Exercising pig muscles when they’re not attached to the rest of the pig? – Quite a stumper indeed. I don’t know how far this experiment is going to go, but if it succeeds this is going to cause drastic changes worldwide. Meat may become cheaper, but at the same time a lot of people could lose their jobs if we don’t need to rely on live animals for meat. Would you eat lab meat?
pic from Room Candy
[via Telegraph via The Presurfer]
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Categories: Future Tech Strange + Wonderful Technology Weird Science
Tags: artificial food genetics meat netherlands pig pork science weird yuck
well, think about it in terms of vegetarians. i’d eat meat if we didn’t have to kill the animals to get it, if there isn’t cruelty involved. so, yeah, this might have a big impact.
Considering that 30% of the dry land of planet earth is now used to raise livestock — that’s 70% of all farmland — you’d better believe this will make a difference.
If they can extract cells from living animals, then they could extract cells from endangered species, even humans and culture them.
You could have Bald Eagle steaks or Giant Tortoise burgers.
You could even eat a roast of your own leg -
Mmm. Delicious dodo fritters!
I would totally eat a roast of my own leg.
You could even eat a roast of your own leg -
Or brain. Perhaps this is how people will turn into zombies.
it is difficult to make brain if there is no brain. most people have no brain on this world.
Woot! bring on the whale steaks!
Anyone have a feeling that this grown pork is the thing to start the zombie apocalypse? May god help us all.
Besides the outstandingly significant ecological benefit, this could really be a relief for the immense suffering of farm animals throughout the world. Who knows if one day the meat industry can finally be outlawed for its cruelty and immorality with respect to living beings.
No more animal killing
Try to make some beef
Make it less soggy
I figured you could make mock lobster by taking the cloned lobster muscle cells,and make a surimi like slurry of them, make them deposit into a flat sheet. Spray the flat sheet with the chemical that is molecular cuisine ‘meat glue’ and roll the sheet into a cylinder. Mock tail of lobster. It would taste entirely like lobster instead of vaguely lobster like surimi is because it is mostly puree of whitefish.