Posted on 12/11/2005 1:02:52 PM PST by paulat
In Vitro Meat
By RAIZEL ROBIN
Published: December 11, 2005
In July, scientists at the University of Maryland announced the development of bioengineering techniques that could be used to mass-produce a new food for public consumption: meat that is grown in incubators.
The process works by taking stem cells from a biopsy of a live animal (or a piece of flesh from a slaughtered animal) and putting them in a three-dimensional growth medium - a sort of scaffolding made of proteins.
[snip]
Scientists at NASA and at several Dutch universities have been developing the technology since 2001, and in a few years' time there may be a lab-grown meat ready to market as sausages or patties. In 20 years, the scientists predict, they may be able to grow a whole beef or pork loin. A tissue engineer at the Medical University of South Carolina has even proposed a countertop device similar to a bread maker that would produce meat overnight in your kitchen.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Like this is more unnatural than penning calves in a tiny kennel where they can't even turn around, pumping them full of antibiotics because it's more efficient than actual hygiene, injecting them full of hormones to get them as big as fast possible, and then killing them at 6 months or so?
However, watch the PeTA nuts scream when the cow and chicken populations drop by about 92%. They'd rather they were roaming free, as in India. Morons.
By the way, transferring the technology to other areas, this could make long-range space travel (that lasts generations) somewhat more realistic.
You really should take a look at this NYTM "Ideas" issue...
Here's another one:
Solar Sailing
By BRYAN CURTIS Published: December 11, 2005
Solar sailing is a bit like a missing link between Carl Sagan and Patrick O'Brian. "Imagine hoisting a sail and being out there in space," says Louis Friedman, the project director of Cosmos 1, the world's first solar-sail spacecraft. "It's a beautiful idea, and it conjures up the idea of the great sailing ships and whole notion of exploration." On June 21, Friedman's team placed the unmanned Cosmos 1 inside an intercontinental ballistic missile and launched it skyward from a Russian submarine. The missile faltered, and Cosmos 1 crashed into the sea - a scene recalling great shipwrecks more than great discoveries.
But if, someday, it works, Friedman says that solar sailing could have many advantages over conventional space flight. For one thing, a solar-sailing vessel does not require fuel. Once in space, the Cosmos 1 would have unfurled eight 50-foot-long sails, which would have arrayed themselves around the ship like flower petals. Engineers built the sails from thin sheets of aluminum-coated Mylar that were designed to reflect photons from the sun's light and thus propel the craft forward. As with an earthbound ship, the angle of the sails was to be manipulated to control the direction of the craft.
At first, a solar-sailing vessel would accelerate very slowly. But its acceleration would be constant, so that in a little over a year's time the craft could be traveling at speeds in excess of conventional rockets. For this reason, Friedman sees solar sailing as the ideal method to visit other planets. It could, he predicts, shave a few years off a satellite's 10-year trip to Pluto.
Well, we'd be able to enjoy rare pork chops, no fear of parasites. Should be interesting.
no, you have a very valid point, but tinkering with genetic material is a whole different ballgame.
No genetic modification here. They just take a piece of meat from an actual animal and cause it to grow into a bigger piece of meat.
I think Arthur C. Clarke beat Sagan to it... "The Wind From The Sun" is one of my favorite Clarke stories, and IIRC, it came out 30 years ago or more.
Replication is never perfect, mutations happen. In vivo, the body has ways of removing the defective cells. In vitro, no such mechanism exists.
Am I mistaken, or is that how prions come about (mad cow disease)?
Yeah, but random mutations won't give the cells super powers.
It'll make them dead.
That's wnat happens in nature, too. Though I suppose a meat plant supervisor would want to keep that sort of thing from happening, since it might affect the flavor. :)
You know nothing about this but have already buried the cattle ranchers! We know nothing about the cost, how much they can grow, etc. It could be centuries before this is viable if ever. Don't believe every little thing scientists tell you, often it doesn't pan out!
Long pig, anyone?
I want the Ron Popiel Ribeye Maker.
So now you can make SPAM at home.
Is store bought too expensive?
Nope. Doesn't sound familiar....
But I don't claim to have read everything by Clarke.. Probably have read only 3/4 of even his major novels and most widely published short stories.
I read a book not too long ago (forget title) in which one of the main characters was geneticist who developed a cow with no head. It had a breathing and a feeding tube instead. Meat- tree is what he named it.
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