I’m back! And I bring gifts of science news.
I spent an extra day in DC to do some touristy stuff and catch up with some friends. While I was getting ready on Monday morning, I noticed that a momentous event was being live tweeted by BBC correspondent Pallab Ghosh:
World's first lab-grown burger is to be cooked and eaten today. I've had a look around the lab where its been made http://t.co/VfCJbLRgdi
— Pallab Ghosh (@BBCPallab) August 5, 2013
Nadir first covered this topic last February, and it seems that Dutch scientist Mark Post has made good with his claims. He and his team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands didn’t do it alone, though. It was revealed that that Google co-founder Sergey Brin was the major financial backer of the endeavor. He claims that lab-grown meat is on the “cusp of viability” and will seek to nip future food crises in the bud. Not only that, but lab-grown protein is the only truly ethical meat product out there, potentially reducing the harm done to animals to zero.
Of course, it’s still early for lab meat, and as today’s comic lampoons, there were some drawbacks to this new “cultured beef”.
There's no fat in the burger so tasters say not the right flavour
— Pallab Ghosh (@BBCPallab) August 5, 2013
Not that we couldn’t all benefit from a truly fat free burger.
The announcement was barely minutes old when people began to ask vegetarians, “Would you eat it?” While I’m sure much of it is the thinly veiled trolling that happens whenever a veg/vegan mentions their preference, I’m truly curious to hear what you all think.
