Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Test tube tasties

Hey people!




Today I'm telling you about a new scientific project which is going on in the Netherlands at the moments, what are our crazy Dutch friends doing? Well they are creating a whole new type of food involving this fellow here:


So what are they doing? Well, you might know that since the invention of the test tube and petri dish, man has always wanted to do crazy stuff with it... That way in vitro fertilisation was born... The creating of a new lifeform from the original egg- and spermcel wasn't enough for the scientists, so they started research on how to make a new life form from cells only, they researched how to clone animals...
And following to that research, the Dutch began to think of another purpose of the cloning technique...

What were they thinking of? well, cloned hamburgers... If you are wondering how they want to achieve this, they simply take some cow muscle stem cells and keep cloning them untill a new muscle has been formed, next they mince and slice the meat and presto vito! You've got yourself a real test tube burger...
They claim that it's just as good as the original, but they have also explained they still have one small problem involving the texture and in a less way, the taste of the meat... Look at it like this: a normal cow "trains" its muscles daily by normal walking, by that it creates proteins in the muscle, which give a firm texture and the meaty taste. Now, a cloned muscle doesn't exercise, so it hasn't got as much proteins as his natural brother, giving it a somewhat more squishy feeling and less taste...
But the team is quite confident that they will overcome this problem and even that the meat will be a hit... This is their argument:

"When we are eating a hamburger we don't think, 'I’m eating a dead cow. And when people are already far from what they eat, it's not too hard to see them accepting cultured meat."
If you think about it, this could be a great thing if it ends up being both good and safe, because it could kill the hunger in our world, and it could also reduce the amount of methane we release, because the meat industy is one of the biggest producers of methane gas (= cow farts), which is bad for the ozone layer.

Even though they still have some problems, they are alreasy looking for people who want to test the burgers once they are completed,

So, what would you do? And what do you think about these cloned patties? Let me know in the comments below =D

See you next time!

4 comments:

  1. Sounds good. I'd eat dem burgers, nothing wrong with it

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  2. I think it's a good idea tbh. That way PETA can stop going on about mistreatment of animals because the scientists only need a few cells and it could be from the same cow. Just like HELA cells.
    Great post

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  3. I would totally eat a clone burger. I'll drink protein shakes to make up the difference.

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