The 103rd edition of the Tangled Bank is now online at the Nature Network!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Revere is thinking about how to grow meat without the animal. It’s a cool idea that’s been floating around in science fiction for a while now, but, well, of course it has problems, and Revere notes a couple.
The two biggest, as far as I can see from a quick perusal of the burgeoning literature, are finding a suitable nutrient to grow the cells in; and then growing tissue that has the proper texture for being a meat substitute. Animal meat is not just muscle cells but a complicated structure also containing connective tissue, blood and blood vessels, nerves and fat. Just growing up masses of identical cells isn’t sufficient. You have to reproduce an architecture.
I see those two problems as aspects of one much bigger problem. Muscle doesn’t grow in isolation: it’s always in a solid environmental context. It’s made up of cells that respond to activity in a way that enhances performance for the organism, and incidentally promotes flavor and texture and bulk for the delectation of the carnivore. So what do you need to make edible muscle mass, beyond a sheet of myocytes in a culture dish (which, I suspect, would have the texture of slime and would not sell well in test markets)?
An architecture is right. You need connective tissue to form a framework and you need a rigid but motile structure to do work and exercise the growing muscle. Then, because you want a piece of muscle larger than a drop, you need a delivery system for nutrients: a circulatory system, with a pump. This muscle in a vat is going to need a skeleton and a heart.
When I teach physiology, one of the organs I emphasize is the liver. It’s amazing how important a liver is to just about everything: growth, digestion, physical performance, reproduction, the whole shebang. Our cultured muscle will need a liver equivalent to support it. Even if we get rid of the digestive system entirely and feed this muscle mass on delivered supplies of pure glucose, amino acids, and various cofactors and enzymes, the liver is a primary regulatory agent for those substances.
Then we need an immune system. A huge lump of cells growing in a bath of sugar and amino acids is bacterial heaven — it’s going to need major antibacterial/antiviral support.
The more I think about it, the more I think people are going at it backwards. We shouldn’t be thinking about building muscle from the cells up, to create a purified system to produce meat for the market, we should be going the other way, starting with self-sustaining meat producers and genetically paring away the less commercially viable bits, like the brain. Instead of test-tube meat, we should be working on more efficient organisms that generate muscle tissue with the properties we want.
Guess what? Farmers have already been doing this! Look at the domestic cow and chicken and turkey: they’re far more brainless than their wild relatives, and have been reduced to as much stupidity and helplessness as possible, without compromising their ability to survive semi-autonomously and harvest nutrients from naturally occurring food sources. I don’t see all that much difference in the consequences between building up a functional meat producer from cells in a dish, and stripping down a functional meat producer from a line of domesticated animals. Both starting points are aiming at the same final result; I suspect that the top down procedure is more likely to achieve success in my lifetime.
Look what they’ve done: Philadelphia declares a whole Year of Evolution, a celebration starting on 19 April.
The YEAR OF EVOLUTION kicks off for the public on Saturday, April 19, as the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology opens Surviving: The Body of Evidence, a new exhibition which explores the process of evolution and its outcomes. Other public programs so far scheduled at the University of Pennsylvania include lectures by Donald Johanson, Director, Institute for Human Origins (May 2008), Spencer Wells, Project Director of the National Geographic Genographic Project (October 2008), Charles Darwin expert E. Janet Browne, author of the two-volume Charles Darwin: Voyaging and the Power of Place (November 2008), and renowned biologist Ken Miller (February 2009). Additional lectures, Penn Museum programs for children and families, scholarly symposia, and an evolution-focused freshman class book-reading selection, will round out the University’s rich offerings.
The Academy of Natural Sciences, The Franklin, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Mütter Museum and College of Physicians, and the American Philosophical Society Museum join with Penn Museum and the University, in offering programming in the coming year. Included in the public offerings are exhibitions about the work of geneticist Gregor Mendel (Academy of Natural Sciences), and Charles Darwin (American Philosophical Society Museum), as well as an evolutionary perspective on a medical collection (Mütter Museum). Related IMAX movie programs at The Franklin, and a closer look at our closest relatives–fellow primates–at the Philadelphia Zoo, are all part of the year.
Dr. Howard Goldfine, Professor of Microbiology, School of Medicine, and Dr. Michael Weisberg, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, School of Arts and Sciences, are co-chairs of the University’s YEAR OF EVOLUTION. Dr. Janet Monge, Acting Curator of Physical Anthropology, Penn Museum, and co-curator of the Surviving exhibition, was instrumental in organizing the city-wide effort.
This is how it is done, people! Organize a whole series of positive, informative events for your town, right now — you’ve fallen behind Philly!
Now I just need an excuse to visit…Philadelphia is a great old town that has just gotten better.
Plan ahead! It’s going to be a fun weekend!
This Thursday, 17 April, get a head start on the weekend with Virtually Speaking on Second Life. I’m being interviewed at 6pm Pacific Time, and this could be spectacularly entertaining: I’m a total newbie at SL, so I’m going to be getting lessons in how to sit down this afternoon, which tells you that there will be opportunities for major klutzy gaffes at this event. I’m afraid I might turn into a giant flying penis sometime mid-interview.
Friday evening at 7:30 pm, we have the UMM Dance Ensemble performance in Edson Auditorium here on campus. Some of my students are performing, so come on by and support interdisciplinary, liberal arts education by cheering on dancing biologists!
There is a major movie premiere this weekend: Zombie Strippers, starring the renowned thespian, Jenna Jameson. Unfortunately, it’s not playing in Morris, and it does look like the very best movie opening this weekend, so I’m afraid this is probably the weekend to skip going to the theaters.
With one special exception! The Morris Theatre, in a special showing, has engaged a one-time 3:00 Saturday matinee showing of the horror classic, Theatre of Blood, starring Vincent Price and Diana Rigg. Come on, people! Classic 70s horror with a master of the genre shown in an actual old-time single screen movie theater? How can you miss this? There’s also going to be a post-movie discussion of Shakespearian themes in the film afterwards, at the Common Cup Coffeehouse. I’m going to be there — it’ll warm me up for the next event of the evening.
At 8:00 Saturday, in the Science Auditorium on campus, I’m debating Angus Menuge on “Does neuroscience leave room for God”. It may be a bit of a let down after Theatre of Blood — there will probably be no beheadings, sword fights, or eviscerations — but we could have a feisty argument.
I know, Morris is a long ways from everything, but it’s going to be the happening place on the whole planet for a few days. If anyone feels like making the long trip out, send me email, and I can give you directions.
Well, except for the grain silos, that is, but I don’t need to go in those. New York is a whole different story, though. This story about elevators is informative, because it tells you all about the construction and safety features, takes a tour of the Otis company, and even talks about the psychology of spacing oneself in a crowded elevator…but the part that will stick with you is the saga of poor Nicholas White, who was forgotten in a stuck elevator for 41 hours over one weekend — trapped in a small box for almost two days with absolutely nothing to do. I think I’d go insane.
Almost as painful: he was observed on time-lapse security cameras. Now you too can watch a man suffer extreme boredom and frustration. If this were a psychology experiment, it would never get past the review board, that’s for sure.
(via Kottke)
How stupid can they get? First it’s discovered that the makers of the stupid propaganda movie were stealing some of their cell animations from XVIVO, and now it is revealed that other segments were ripped off from PBS. It’s as if there isn’t a single bit of creativity in the whole movie — they can’t even lie imaginatively.
In related news, here’s something really weird. Expelled is suing XVIVO! Oh, and take note of the bizarre complaint that I’ve put in bold in the middle of this freaky press release:
Premise Media is ready to challenge the unfounded copyright infringement claims asserted recently by representatives of XVIVO, LLC concerning original animation Premise Media created for the documentary, EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed.
On April 14, 2008, Premise Media filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas seeking declaratory judgment that there is no copyright or other infringement. Premise Media also seeks its attorneys’ fees in responding to the XVIVO claims.
The suit results from unfounded claims recently made by representatives of XVIVO. These claims have received wide distribution as part of an ongoing campaign attempting to discredit the film and its producers.
Premise Media has also learned of grass root efforts that are underway to try to influence the ranking of internet searches regarding Expelled by those wanting to learn about the film. Their stated goal is an attempt to counter-site those searchers to other websites that criticize the themes in the movie.
“We are not surprised that opponents of our film are attempting to interfere with its important message. As the movie documents, similar tactics are being used across the country against many of the researchers, scientists, and professors who want to engage in free debate within science but have inadequate resources to challenge the Establishment. However, we do have the platform to confront the ‘thought police,’ and we will work tirelessly to open the doors of free speech and inquiry,” said Executive Producer and Premise Chairman Logan Craft.
Executive Producer Walt Ruloff noted that, “EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed opens in over 1,000 theaters nationwide this Friday, April 18th. It is interesting that these efforts are made less than ten days before the movie debuts and involve those who continually seek to thwart open debate. While bullying tactics may work against some individuals who are trying to explore the origins of life, it will not work against us. We certainly will not allow a small group of self-appointed gatekeepers to infringe our rights of free speech and our obligation to expose them for what they are — namely, intellectual thugs unwilling to accept any dissent from Darwinian orthodoxy.”
Ben Stein, the star of the movie, also makes it clear that no one will shut him up. “I came to this project unsure what I would find. I am now amazed at the intolerance of many academic elites. I feel that it is my mission to speak out on behalf of targeted dissenters and fight for their freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry.”
Tell me…do you see anyone trying to shut Ben Stein up? Their faux macho posturing is not persuasive.
It is good to see that the NCSE’s counter-site has made them cry.
Does everyone here listen to NPR or something? Not only have I been hearing all about the Expelled ads running, which is bad enough, but apparently in their attempts to sidle towards the lunatic side of the political spectrum, this morning they also ran a story about a pretentious 16 year old climate skeptic. Woo hoo, teenager thinks she knows more than scientific experts … now that is news. I took a look; I’m unimpressed, even considering her age. Parroting right-wing thinktanks is not evidence of independent, skeptical thought, I’m afraid.
Fortunately, James Hrynyshyn and Janet Stemwedel dug a little deeper. Both point out that the student’s exercise in critical thinking is a little shallow and a little selective. But of course shallow and selective is precisely what one wants in a young person being groomed to fit into the right wing ideology machine — someone just smart enough to snipe at the edges of the science, but not good enough to actually comprehend it.
On the non-necessity of evolving large brains:
It requires big brains and they in turn demand lots of protein, which, outside modern yuppie societies, generally means meat. As the late evolutionary paleontologist Jack Sepkoski used to say: “I see intelligence as just one of a variety of adaptations among tetrapods for survival. Running fast in a herd while being as dumb as shit, I think, is a very good adaptation for survival.”
(from a review of an interesting book.)
I like Greg Laden’s taxonomy of Horwitzian Academic “Freedom” bills:
“Academic Freedom” bills seem to come in two flavors: Those that protect students from the possibility of learning certain things, and those that protect subversive teachers from getting in trouble for being bad teachers.
