scottobear | 7545 - Scotto gestures hypnotically...

...and *PRESTO*. It's a Saturday.

I wouldn't mind having the powers of a hypnotist like Mandrake, Sargon or Zanzibar in classic comics. Plus, Magicians always have spiffy headgear. Top Hats, Fezzes... pretty keen.

"Scotto, an American philosopher, fights the forces of crime and evil with the magic of Indian Fakirs..."

http://scottobear.com/lj/archives/070905/makesurestay.jpg

Not a bad trick... baddie's legs pop off with a snap of your fingers.
I'd have said a magic word for spice. "paraplegic pro temporum!"

My eyes are blue and look as innocent as a child's. Particularly of a child who is trying hard to look innocent.

Thick, thick rain right now, remainders of the power outage still bouncing around. More Street traffic sounds , tires sending rooster-tails up as they go through puddles, rain water hitting glass and ground water. I hear the alarm klaxon at the medical center is going... it started a few minutes before power went out over here. I wonder how long it'll continue until someone comes to shut it off? 1-hour turnaround for repair isn't bad, considering how busy I imagine FPL is with the storm.

[update - 7:35 - klaxons have stopped]

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Kind Sailor.

Where You Lived: South Africa.

How You Died: Natural causes.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

You Are a Soy Latte

At your best, you are: free spirited, down to earth, and relaxed

At your worst, you are: dogmatic and picky

You drink coffee when: you need a pick me up, and green tea isn't cutting it

Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

You Are Rocky Road Ice Cream

Unpredictable and wild, you know how to have fun.
You're also a trend setter who takes risks with new things.
You know about the latest and greatest - and may have invented it.
You are most compatible with vanilla ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Research shows lab-grown meat possible on an industrial scale via

waxy_org

Experiments for NASA space missions have shown that small amounts of edible meat can be created in a lab. But the technology that could grow chicken nuggets without the chicken, on a large scale, may not be just a science fiction fantasy.

In a paper in the June 29 issue of Tissue Engineering, a team of scientists, including University of Maryland doctoral student Jason Matheny, propose two new techniques of tissue engineering that may one day lead to affordable production of in vitro - lab grown -- meat for human consumption. It is the first peer-reviewed discussion of the prospects for industrial production of cultured meat.

"There would be a lot of benefits from cultured meat," says Matheny, who studies agricultural economics and public health. "For one thing, you could control the nutrients. For example, most meats are high in the fatty acid Omega 6, which can cause high cholesterol and other health problems. With in vitro meat, you could replace that with Omega 3, which is a healthy fat.

"Cultured meat could also reduce the pollution that results from raising livestock, and you wouldn't need the drugs that are used on animals raised for meat."

Prime Without the Rib

The idea of culturing meat is to create an edible product that tastes like cuts of beef, poultry, pork, lamb or fish and has the nutrients and texture of meat.

Scientists know that a single muscle cell from a cow or chicken can be isolated and divided into thousands of new muscle cells. Experiments with fish tissue have created small amounts of in vitro meat in NASA experiments researching potential food products for long-term space travel, where storage is a problem.

"But that was a single experiment and was geared toward a special situation - space travel," says Matheny. "We need a different approach for large scale production."

Matheny's team developed ideas for two techniques that have potential for large scale meat production. One is to grow the cells in large flat sheets on thin membranes. The sheets of meat would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked on top of one another to increase thickness.

The other method would be to grow the muscle cells on small three-dimensional beads that stretch with small changes in temperature. The mature cells could then be harvested and turned into a processed meat, like nuggets or hamburgers.

Treadmill Meat

To grow meat on a large scale, cells from several different kinds of tissue, including muscle and fat, would be needed to give the meat the texture to appeal to the human palate.

"The challenge is getting the texture right," says Matheny. "We have to figure out how to 'exercise' the muscle cells. For the right texture, you have to stretch the tissue, like a live animal would."

Where's the Beef?

And, the authors agree, it might take work to convince consumers to eat cultured muscle meat, a product not yet associated with being produced artificially.

"On the other hand, cultured meat could appeal to people concerned about food safety, the environment, and animal welfare, and people who want to tailor food to their individual tastes," says Matheny. The paper even suggests that meat makers may one day sit next to bread makers on the kitchen counter.

"The benefits could be enormous," Matheny says. "The demand for meat is increasing world wide -- China 's meat demand is doubling every ten years. Poultry consumption in India has doubled in the last five years.

"With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply. And you could do it in a way that's better for the environment and human health. In the long term, this is a very feasible idea."

Matheny saw so many advantages in the idea that he joined several other scientists in starting a nonprofit, New Harvest, to advance the technology. One of these scientists, Henk Haagsman, Professor of Meat Science at Utrecht University, received a grant from the Dutch government to produce cultured meat, as part of a national initiative to reduce the environmental impact of food production.

Other authors of the paper are Pieter Edelman of Wageningen University , Netherlands ; Douglas McFarland, South Dakota State University ; and Vladimir Mironov, Medical University of South Carolina.

To request a copy of the paper contact contact Larry Bernstein, Tissue Engineering, lbernstein@liebertpub.com

For more information on cultured meat, see the New Harvest website, http://www.new-harvest.org .

Stem Cell Steak, here we come

1 year ago - pizza with dan, adp screws up, paid users get lj-priority, making fiends, Fiona apple mp3, Miami Travel Piccies, condo

2 years ago - trolls, naughty hulk, wonder woman movie

3 years ago - Wave of Husband killings, apple nipple monkey, star trek chairs auctioned, Ashcroft afraid of kitties

4 years ago - brackish , some broken links, dancing poll, tried mcD's yogurt & fruit, Le Petomane, band name poll, bid farewell to some junk

5 years ago - angry beavers, scary movie, don't look behind you.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: ambient noises