英国《每日邮报》6月26日报道，荷兰科学家近日宣布，全球第一个“试管汉堡”即将在一年内问世。
这种汉堡所取用的汉堡肉，不需要通过屠宰动物获得，而是在实验室里“培养”出来的。科学家们正在进行的这项研究，是通过从牛身上提取的10000个干细胞，在实验室里以人工培育的方法使其不断分裂增殖超过10亿倍，从而得到与真正牛肉相近的肌肉细胞。这种“实验室”出品的肉将首先被应用于汉堡中，所谓的“试管汉堡”就将这样诞生。
作为“试管汉堡”项目的负责人，荷兰马斯特里赫特大学生理学教授马克·波特斯表示，他们进行这项研究的目的，是为了解决日益严重的全球粮食危机，以及畜牧业引起的废气排放问题。
波特斯告诉美国《科学》杂志，他相信出自他们实验室“试管汉堡”12个月内便能成功面世。
“我们正努力向世界证明，我们可以成功研制出这种产品，而我们现在需要的，只是一个愿意第一个品尝它的勇敢者，”波特斯说，“当然，如果没有人愿意，那么我会亲自试尝第一口。”
荷兰目前在全球人工肉类研究中处于领先地位，荷兰政府已投入约150万英镑用于相关研究。根据荷兰乌得勒支大学研究人员的计算，10个干细胞变成5万吨肉类，只需要两个月时间。
生物探索推荐英文原文
The first ‘test-tube’ hamburger is only a year away, scientists claim.
They believe the product, beef mince grown from stem cells, could pave the way for eating meat without animals being slaughtered.
The Dutch scientists predict that over the next few decades the world’s population will increase so quickly that there will not be enough livestock to feed everyone.
As a result, they say, laboratory-grown beef, chicken and lamb could become normal.
The scientists are currently developing a burger which will be grown from 10,000 stem cells extracted from cattle, which are then left in the lab to multiply more than a billion times to produce muscle tissue similar to beef.
The product is called ‘in vitro’ meat.
Mark Post, professor of physiology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who is behind the project, said: ‘I don’t see any way you could rely on old-fashioned livestock in the coming decades.
Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2008347/Test-tube-burger-coming-soon-Lab-grown-meat-needed-feed-world.html#ixzz1QYMj3Lw2‘In vitro meat will be the only choice left.
‘We are trying to prove to the world we can make a product out of this, and we need a courageous person who is willing to be the first to taste it.
‘If no one comes forward then it might be me.’
He told Scientific American magazine that he thought the first burger could be made within 12 months.
In 2009 scientists from the same university grew strips of pork using the same method. They admitted it was not particularly appetising, being grey with a similar texture to calamari. Fish fillets have been grown in a New York laboratory using cells taken from goldfish muscle tissue.
Even if the initial results do not taste quite the same as proper meat, scientists are convinced the public will soon get used to it, especially if they do not have a choice.
A colleague of Professor Post said: ‘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.’
Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2008347/Test-tube-burger-coming-soon-Lab-grown-meat-needed-feed-world.html#ixzz1QYMo8i4aThe world’s meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 as the population increases.
Holland is currently leading the world in the production of artificial meat, and the Dutch government has put £1.5million into the research. The scientists involved believe that the test-tube burger is only the first stage in a food revolution that might be able to solve the problem.
Researchers at Utrecht University have calculated that an initial ten stem cells could produce 50,000 tons of meat in two months.
An Oxford University study found that this process would consume 35-60 per cent less energy, 98 per cent less land and produce 80-95 per cent less greenhouse gas than conventional farming.
