Believe it or not, what you’re looking at in the above photo are petri dishes containing thin strips of 100% lab-grown muscle tissue, synthesized from animal stem cells harvested from slaughterhouses. This lab grown meat contains no blood and no fat, and is “exercised” by being stretched between several tabs of Velcro. Combine about 3,000 of these strips with some synthesized fat, and you’re on your way to a lab grown burger.
Researchers believe it will be possible to create one of these burgers within the year, and that once this is accomplished, they can begin tweaking the meat to look and taste the way we want it to.
The benefits of switching over to this meat are apparently huge. The Vancouver Sun calculates that if we were to transition completely to lab-grown meat, we would use up to 60% less energy, emit up to 95% fewer greenhouse gasses, and use 98% less land. However, that’s probably a LONG way off, as the first lab-grown burger will cost roughly $345,000.
(Vancouver Sun via DVICE)
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According to European researchers, eating strawberries before drinking alcohol can help prevent damage to your stomach’s mucas membrane:
It’s due to the berries’ antioxidant properties and anthocyans, as well as the antioxidant defenses and enzymes they cause the body to release. The study found that eating lots of strawberries can also help prevent gastric illnesses, and slow down the formation of stomach ulcers.
The study noted that mucas membrane damage isn’t limited to just alcohol consumption, as it can also be caused by viral infections, medications such as aspirin, or medication used to treat against the Helicobacter pylori bacteria.
(MedicalXpress via Gizmodo)
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Since we already have breast milk ice cream and hamburgers made from human turds, it should come as no surprise that researchers are now interested in making gelatin from human DNA. The study, which recently appeared in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, focuses on a series of successful experiments which saw human genes inserted into a strain of yeast in order to grow quantities of recombinant (genetically engineered) human gelatin.
The journal’s publisher says the human gelatin could eventually be used as a substitute for the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin used every year in products such as marshmallows, Gummi Bears, and other candies.
Apparently, the pharmaceutical industry already uses human gelatin in the manufacture of certain pills and vaccines, which an American bioethicist stated “is not derived from human tissue in the same way that animal gelatin is. … It’s really derived from yeast — yeast that have been modified with genetic sequences found in human beings.”
(The Food Section via The Village Voice)
Did you know that cow and human milk naturally contain small amounts of morphine as well as the protein casein, “which provokes similar effects to opiates when it’s turned into cheese, due to the casomorphins being greater concentrated?” Did you also know that the managing director of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has described this phenomenon as “dairy crack”? Now that you do, you can finally blame your dairy addiction on nature.
Send your food pics to tips [at] thatsnerdalicious.com.
(via Gizmodo)
Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon of the Italian Institute of Technology recently taught a robot built by Barrett Technology to flip a pancake. The experiment was related to “the application of algorithms that help learn by imitation and reinforcement”, and required 50 trials before success was achieved.
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