第1794期:Australian Company Uses Extinct Mammoth for Lab-grown Meat

An Australian company has made lab-grown meat using genetic information from a wooly mammoth, an extinct animal. The company launched the creation in a science museum in the Netherlands. It came just days before April 1, known as April Fools’ Day. “This is not an April Fools' joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of the Australian company Vow. “This is a real innovation.” The lab-grown meat, also called cultivated or cell-based meat, is made from animal cells and grown in a lab. Animals do not need to be killed to produce them. Supporters of cultivated meat say it is better not just for the animals but also for the environment.一家澳大利亚公司利用一种已灭绝动物猛犸象的遗传信息制造了实验室培育的肉类。该公司在荷兰的一家科学博物馆推出了这一创作。就在 4 月 1 日的前几天，也就是愚人节。 “这不是愚人节玩笑，”澳大利亚公司 Vow 的创始人 Tim Noakesmith 说。 “这是一项真正的创新。”实验室培育的肉，也称为培养肉或细胞培养肉，由动物细胞制成并在实验室培育。不需要杀死动物来生产它们。培育肉的支持者表示，培育肉不仅对动物有益，对环境也有益。The company, Vow, combined genetic information from the mammoth and African elephants, the mammoth’s closest living relative. The information was then put into a sheep muscle cell. In the lab, the cells increased in number until there were enough to make a meatball.More than 100 companies around the world are working on cultivated meat products. Experts say that if the technology becomes more common, it could greatly reduce the environmental impacts of meat production in the future. Currently, billions of hectares of land are used for meat production worldwide. Singapore is the only country so far to approve cultivated meat for humans to eat. Vow is hoping to sell its first product there — cultivated Japanese quail meat — later this year.这家名为 Vow 的公司结合了猛犸象和非洲象的遗传信息，非洲象是猛犸象的近亲。然后将信息放入绵羊肌肉细胞中。在实验室中，细胞数量不断增加，直到足以制作一个肉丸。全球有 100 多家公司正在研究培育肉制品。专家表示，如果这项技术变得更加普遍，未来肉类生产对环境的影响可能会大大降低。目前，全球有数十亿公顷的土地用于肉类生产。新加坡是迄今为止唯一批准人类食用人造肉的国家。 Vow 希望在今年晚些时候在那里销售其第一款产品——人工培育的日本鹌鹑肉。Vow does not plan to put the mammoth meatball into production. Instead, the company created it to bring attention and get people talking about the future of meat. “We wanted to get people excited about the future of food… that there are things that are unique and better… and we thought the mammoth would be a conversation starter,” Noakesmith told The Associated Press. Seren Kell is science and technology manager at Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that promotes plant- and cell-based food. Kell said companies usually use cells from farm animals and seafood to develop cultivated meat. She noted that lab-grown meat can help reduce emissions from animal agriculture and satisfy worldwide demand for meat.Vow 不打算将猛犸肉丸投入生产。相反，该公司创建它是为了引起关注并让人们谈论肉类的未来。 “我们想让人们对食物的未来感到兴奋……有些东西是独一无二的，更好的……我们认为猛犸象会成为谈话的开端，”诺克史密斯告诉美联社。 Seren Kell 是 Good Food Institute 的科技经理，这是一家推广植物和细胞食品的非营利组织。凯尔说，公司通常使用来自农场动物和海鲜的细胞来开发人造肉。她指出，实验室培育的肉类有助于减少畜牧业的排放并满足全球对肉类的需求。The large meatball shown in the Netherlands was only for show and not to be eaten. However, the meatball was cooked, and people could smell it. Noakesmith said people who were there said it smelled like another cultivated product the company had produced, which was crocodile. He added that it is “fascinating” to think about smelling something from an animal that has been extinct for thousands of years.荷兰展示的大丸子只供观赏，不可食用。不过丸子是煮熟的，闻着就闻得到。诺克史密斯说，当时在场的人说闻起来像该公司生产的另一种养殖产品，也就是鳄鱼。他补充说，想想从一种已经灭绝了数千年的动物身上闻到某种气味是“令人着迷的”。