new cartridge for your meatjet printer

Not another V*GRA add, but the latest sashay in the chicken-egg dance of science fact, science fiction. UK scientists using inkjet technology to build up matrices of animal tissue. New breakthroughs might lead to the kind of 'vat-grown protein' that is the stuff and staple of sci-fi societies that handwave FTL and antigravity, but still haven't solved the age-old problems of sentient heartbreak and midlife crises.

Cribbed shamelessly and adoringly from the folks at WorldChanging, including the exquisite phrase "meatjet printer". Yes, it DOES sounds like something I would say, but this time it's merely "ecoutez et repetez" as Mrs Jacobs used to say. Here's WC's original.

PS- Is anyone ELSE creeped out by the fact that the original applications were human-medical? Talk about a whole new set of labelling and kashering problems! "This product was produced on an assembly line which also produces biografts for medical aid to impoverished countries. Customers with a visceral peristaltic reflex at the thought of inadvertantly ingesting human cells should consider our Premium Products, produced in a dedicated facility." Let's see how long it takes for someone to raise whether that's an ethical issue, as long as one has an informed tissue donor. I don't *usually* feel old-fashioned, but some of these modern times can really make me gag. So to speak.

PPS- Yes, yes, *both* the medical and food production aspects are Good Things IMHO, and the details of the production are such that things are likely to be (dare I say) *religiously* sterilized. It's just that my field has been systems admin/architecture for so long that worst case scenarios are instantly where I go. Because unless one does go there, and builds in checks and balances, reality is so ingenious that you'd be astonished at what can go wrong. go wrong. go wrong...