Build-A-Burger

Coming to a supermarket near you – lab-grown steak!

This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science….saying, someday. When they get it right!

Yes, scientists can now make meat by growing cells in a laboratory! It’s easy on the planet, but not so much on the palate. It just doesn’t have the same “mouth feel” as real meat. Is there a way to give lab-burgers a better bite?

Gregory Ziegler at Pennsylvania State University thinks so. The trick might be a sponge-like framework that would help the cells grow into the right shape. But how to create a tiny, edible scaffold?

Think: cotton candy! Alcohol, electricity, and a rotating drum can spin cotton candy-like fibers. Ziegler tried it with corn starch, which is edible and tasteless. And what did he build his specialized cotton-corn spinner out of? Wait for it…Legos!!

He used a cheap motorized Lego set to perfect his starch spinning machine. The end result? A porous mat made for growing meat, fresh off the Lego press!

Ziegler hopes his corn starch mats will help grow the perfect steak.

Just please don’t say hot dogs grown out of Lincoln Logs are next!