Dutch Scientist Given €300,000 To Grow Hamburger In Lab

Business Insider ^ | Oct. 25, 2011 | Nick Jardine

[nickcarraway]

A Dutch professor at Maastricht University has been given a grant of €300,000 ($417,000) to "grow" a hamburger in a lab, reports the BBC.

Mark Post is attempting to grow synthetic meat in a lab using muscle stem cells. Post has said that his goal is to turn meat production from a farming process to a factory process.

According to Gizmodo, he can only currently grow meat a few millimeters thick due to having no way of getting nutrients to the muscle cells. However, he is hoping to introduce a new process to allow his portion sizes to increase.

In order to grow his meat, Post attaches the muscle cells to velcro, which causes them to contract and exercise themselves. He is planning on producing several thin strips of meat and then having a celebrity chef cook him a hamburger to demonstrate his process.

[TheOldLady]

Hands?

[SunkenCiv]

Frosty.

[SunkenCiv]

The cells that will grow are the meat; I’ll make a wild guess and say the marbling comes from the fat the cells exude when their diet gets too rich. But maybe it’s 100% lean, dunno. Then the cells were gathered up and pattied, then cooked. :’)

[TheOldLady]

Soda.

[TheOldLady]

I love you. Find out what totally grosses me out, and never let it go. This will be our personal undead thread as you tease me about this vile
"food" for the rest of my days. I'm just glad that you're so much younger, so I get to die first and get away from you and this yicky thread.

But what are friends for, I guess? I am laughing MBO!