Cultured meat firm resurrects woolly mammoth in lab-grown meatball:
Truth, as the saying goes, is often stranger than fiction. The very notion of resurrecting the long-extinct woolly mammoth was the stuff of fantasy not that long ago, but scientists are already working on ways to achieve something close to that, using DNA from soft-tissue in frozen mammoth remains and meshing it with that of a modern-day elephant.
But while such "de-extinction" projects may or may not ultimately succeed, one company is already laying claim to having produced the first meat product made from mammoth DNA.
Vow, an Australian cultivated food company that creates meat in a laboratory setting from animal cells, says that it has used advanced molecular engineering to resurrect the woolly mammoth in meatball form, by combining original mammoth DNA with fragments of an African elephant's DNA.
There's little question that cultivated meat is coming, evidenced by the countless companies raising vast swathes of venture capital funding to produce meat and fish in a lab from animal cells, as well as the fact that companies are now starting to receiving the blessings of regulators such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But while pork sausages and seafood make sense insofar as they are food that people are familiar with, Vow — which closed a $49.2 million round of funding just a few months ago — is clearly upping the ante with its foray into the world of extinct animals.
It's worth acknowledging that there is a sizeable element of marketing magicianship to this announcement. The very concept was devised by communications agency and WPP-subsidiary Wunderman Thompson, which tells us something about the intent here — this is very much a promotional campaign for Vow. But at the same time, it's also a promotional campaign for cultured meat in general, and the role it could play in creating a sustainable protein source that doesn't involve killing animals. By some estimations, around 60% of greenhouse gas emissions from food production emanate from animal-based foods, double that of plant-based equivalents.
[...] "We filled in any gaps in the DNA sequence of this mammoth myoglobin gene, by using the genome of the African elephant, the mammoth's closest living relative [editor's note: it's actually the Asian elephant that is the mammoth's closest living relative]," Ryall said. "We inserted the mammoth myoglobin gene into our cells using a very low-current and high-voltage charge. Then we continued to grow and multiply these cells just as would occur in a mammoth thousands of years ago. And the amazing thing about this is that not a single animal needed to die to produce the mammoth meatball."
This isn't the first time a scientists have created food products from extinct animals. Back in 2018, a VC-backed Silicon Valley startup called Geltor made gummies using protein from a mastodon, another distant relative of elephants. However, in this latest instance, it's believed that nobody has actually tasted one of the mammoth meatballs. Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Professor Ernst Wolvetang, from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland which worked with Vow in this project, suggested that it's probably not safe to try the meatball just now, even if regulators permitted it.
"We haven't seen this protein for thousands of years," Wolvetang said. "So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies."
(Score: 2) by Ingar on Wednesday March 29 2023, @08:32AM (4 children)
In Belgium and the Netherlands the Mammoth ("Mammoet" in Dutch) is a large Frikandel [wikipedia.org],
a sausage made from minced meat, sold as a snack. Ironically, the mammoet began its life as a meatball, but the original inventor changed its shape for legal reasons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2023, @12:23PM (1 child)
If you can't get lab grown mammoth meat, will you settle for near-extinct meat instead? Here in Buffalo NY, there are a number of places that sell Buffalo Burgers (bison meat). The animals are (or were, my info is dated) farm raised nearby.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday March 29 2023, @02:21PM
Bison while once "nearly extinct" aren't anywhere near "nearly extinct" anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison [wikipedia.org] (Though, approximately 4,900 bison of the total are "genetically pure". I.E. not bred with other cattle.) That Bison burger is probably part Cow.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2023, @05:47PM (1 child)
Why, did Apple patent round objects as well?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 29 2023, @06:48PM
Back in about 2011'ish, when Apple began suing everyone who made Android smartphones, Apple asserted a design patent on rounded corner rectangles. Yes, really.
The following probably are unresponsive to the actual question, but . . .
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2023, @12:24PM
Bender says this looks like Fun on a Bun [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 29 2023, @03:30PM (5 children)
Does it taste like chicken?
That's a joke, son.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2023, @05:55PM (2 children)
I don't get that joke. When does other things change like chicken? I've never tasted anything else that tastes like chicken. Even turkey doesn't taste like chicken. Chicken is usually seasoned, but nothing seasoned i've tasted has tasted like chicken.
If you are talking about unseasoned meat, then i still don't taste that. I mean it's pretty plain tasting, but still. Or is it just that somewhere everything is so seasoned, that you only taste the seasoning?
Come on, let me in on the joke. I've pondered about it for years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2023, @05:57PM
... also ice-cream headache. What is that? All i ever freeze is my throat. Why is that never in the movies?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2023, @04:24PM
This moderation system does not work. That is not a "troll" post. It's a genuine question, and even if it wasn't, it's more "offtopic", although still relevant to the "joke" reply.
People, god damn it. Does there need to be a moderation license implemented?
(Score: 2) by Improbus on Wednesday March 29 2023, @06:51PM
^ This what I was going to say. ^ :(
(Score: 3, Informative) by corey on Wednesday March 29 2023, @09:36PM
Foghorn Leghorn? 😄
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday March 29 2023, @09:41PM (2 children)
After yesterdays news of pigs thrashing around gasping for air while being killed using common and lawful method of CO2 stunning/suffocation in abattoirs here, I’m all for lab grown meat.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-28/calls-for-investigation-after-pig-gassing-footage-aired/102155766 [abc.net.au]
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday March 30 2023, @01:05AM (1 child)
Pure nitrogen might be more humane than CO2.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Thursday March 30 2023, @02:28PM
No "might" about it.
Mammals can't actually sense suffocation, all we can sense is CO2 buildup.
Meaning that CO2 poisoning recreates 100% of the experience of suffocation, while N2 asphyxiation is completely undetectable except for the possibility of a brief potential sense of intoxication before losing consciousness.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday March 30 2023, @02:53PM
As cultured meat gains ground it seems only natural that we should embrace "non-traditional" meat animals. Rhinoceros, tiger, dodo, giant sloth, nightingale, etc.
With the ethical, ecological, and animal-management concerns all removed, all that remains is the flavor and texture profiles, and the novelty factor.
Why settle for boring, flavorless, "bred for maximum yield at the expense of all else" beef, pork, or chicken when you can culture "real" meat instead?
Heck, we could probably develop some delicious bizarro hybrids - for instance I recently read in an article about endangered species preservation that they test the viability of endangered sperm on the eggs of mice and other common animals. Apparently dolphin sperm are actually even better at fertilizing mouse eggs than mouse sperm are. And while the resulting zygotes presumably wouldn't develop into viable animals, if you're just culturing fat and muscle cells there might be all sorts of delicious combinations that could be made.
Bring on the horse-narwhal hybrid "unicorn" burger!