Hamburger, Hamburger, Lab-Burger?

The world's first lab-grown hamburger will be served Monday (Aug. 5) in London in front of an invitation-only crowd, according to NBC News. No word on a special sauce, lettuce or a sesame bun. The "meat" was grown from cow stem cells in a laboratory vat, then combined with lab-grown fat to create the proper juicy bite of a hamburger.
Researcher Mark Post of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands said the project cost $320,000, funded by an anonymous donor, NBC News reported. (Maybe he or she will be the as-yet-identified diner?) Post has spent nearly 10 years perfecting the muscle-growing process, including feeding sugars, minerals and amino acids to the tissue, and exercising the one-inch muscle strands between two anchor points.
Post aims to develop a sustainable food source that will help reduce the environmental impacts of beef production, Business Insider reported. Post has been scheduled to dish up the lab-grown meals before, but had them canceled, as in October 2012, when the hamburger was to be cooked by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.
Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+.
Live Science newsletter
Stay up to date on the latest science news by signing up for our Essentials newsletter.

Most Popular
By Ben Turner
By Emily Cooke
By Jon Copley
By Sascha Pare
By Laura Geggel