Petri Dish Burger Is Totally Real, Tastes "Reasonably Good," Cost $325,000
In a small step for man and a giant leap for bovine-kind, today a panel of tasters consumed a hamburger composed entirely of meat grown in a lab. The taste test took place in London:
In a public demonstration Monday, three people tasted the in-vitro, or cultured, meat. Chicago-based food writer Josh Schonwald said "the bite feels like a conventional hamburger" but that the meat tasted "like an animal-protein cake."
Other sources reported that the test tube meat tasted "reasonably good."
The burger is made up of 3,000 seperately grown strips of muscle generated from just a few cow cells. The bill—a whopping $325,000—was picked up by Google founder Sergey Brin, it was revealed today.
For every person squicked out by the idea of lab-grown meat, there's a vegetarian celebrating the possiblity of eating guilt-free meat in the near future. Just how near that future will be depends a great deal on the regulatory scrutiny and slowdowns that stand between this burger and your local butcher case.
