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sciencenote:   We live in a wonderfully complex universe, and we are curious about it by nature. Time and again we have wondered—- why are we here? Where did we and the world come from? What is the world made of? It is our privilege to live in a time when enormous progress has been made towards finding some of the answers. String theory is our most recent attempt to answer the last (and part of the second) question. So, what is the world made of? Ordinary matter is made of atoms, which are in turn made of just three basic components: electrons whirling around a nucleus composed of neutrons and protons. The electron is a truly fundamental particle (it is one of a family of particles known as leptons), but neutrons and protons are made of smaller particles, known as quarks. Quarks are, as far as we know, truly elementary. Our current knowledge about the subatomic composition of the universe is summarized in what is known as the Standard Model of particle physics. It describes both the fundamental building blocks out of which the world is made, and the forces through which these blocks interact. There are twelve basic building blocks. Six of these are quarks—- they go by the interesting names of up, down, charm, strange, bottom and top. (A proton, for instance, is made of two up quarks and one down quark.) The other six are leptons—- these include the electron and its two heavier siblings, the muon and the tauon, as well as three neutrinos. … In the last few decades, string theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for a microscopic theory of gravity. And it is infinitely more ambitious than that: it attempts to provide a complete, unified, and consistent description of the fundamental structure of our universe. (For this reason it is sometimes, quite arrogantly, called a ‘Theory of Everything’).
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sciencenote:

  We live in a wonderfully complex universe, and we are curious about it by nature. Time and again we have wondered—- why are we here? Where did we and the world come from? What is the world made of? It is our privilege to live in a time when enormous progress has been made towards finding some of the answers. String theory is our most recent attempt to answer the last (and part of the second) question.

So, what is the world made of? Ordinary matter is made of atoms, which are in turn made of just three basic components: electrons whirling around a nucleus composed of neutrons and protons. The electron is a truly fundamental particle (it is one of a family of particles known as leptons), but neutrons and protons are made of smaller particles, known as quarks. Quarks are, as far as we know, truly elementary.

Our current knowledge about the subatomic composition of the universe is summarized in what is known as the Standard Model of particle physics. It describes both the fundamental building blocks out of which the world is made, and the forces through which these blocks interact. There are twelve basic building blocks. Six of these are quarks—- they go by the interesting names of up, down, charm, strange, bottom and top. (A proton, for instance, is made of two up quarks and one down quark.) The other six are leptons—- these include the electron and its two heavier siblings, the muon and the tauon, as well as three neutrinos.

…

In the last few decades, string theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for a microscopic theory of gravity. And it is infinitely more ambitious than that: it attempts to provide a complete, unified, and consistent description of the fundamental structure of our universe. (For this reason it is sometimes, quite arrogantly, called a ‘Theory of Everything’).

ucsdhealthsciences: Meat your makerWhen you sit down on Thursday and give thanks, start perhaps with the fact you’re not eating the (Petri) dish above. At least not yet. What you’re looking at is not “synthetic” meat, but in vitro or cultured. Apparently, there’s a difference. Synthetic meat typically refers to imitation edible animal tissue made from a vegetable source, often soy or gluten. In vitro meat (which has other monikers, including the less-than-appetizing “shmeat”) is grown from scratch using muscle cells. “This is real meat because it is made of the same cells that meat is composed of,” said Gabor Forgacs, one of the men behind Modern Meadow, a company with plans to use three-dimensional bioprinting to eventually produce in vitro edible meat products. (The company will start first with simple leather products because it’s easier to create and grow skin cells than muscle.)While there’s no obvious demand for in vitro meat at the moment, its proponents say there is a need. Natural meat – the kind that originates from actual animals – is increasingly expensive, ecologically speaking. Using conventional methods, it takes 6.7 pounds of cattle feed, 52.8 gallons of water, 74.5 square feet of land and 1,036 BTUs of fossil fuel energy (enough energy to power a microwave oven for 18 minutes) to produce a quarter-pound of hamburger, according to the Journal of Animal Science. In vitro meat production requires only a fraction of those resources.However, don’t go looking for a lab-grown steak anytime soon. Technological advances have made bioprinting – a process in which biological elements like cells in a liquid form can be laid down upon each other in complex, three-dimensional formulations – more feasible, but nobody’s making anything yet that resembles a turkey breast or pork chop. Indeed, Modern Meadows short-term goal is to print edible slivers of meat two centimeters by one centimeter, less than half a millimeter thick.Sounds tasty.
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ucsdhealthsciences:

Meat your maker

When you sit down on Thursday and give thanks, start perhaps with the fact you’re not eating the (Petri) dish above. At least not yet.

What you’re looking at is not “synthetic” meat, but in vitro or cultured. Apparently, there’s a difference. Synthetic meat typically refers to imitation edible animal tissue made from a vegetable source, often soy or gluten. In vitro meat (which has other monikers, including the less-than-appetizing “shmeat”) is grown from scratch using muscle cells.

“This is real meat because it is made of the same cells that meat is composed of,” said Gabor Forgacs, one of the men behind Modern Meadow, a company with plans to use three-dimensional bioprinting to eventually produce in vitro edible meat products. (The company will start first with simple leather products because it’s easier to create and grow skin cells than muscle.)

While there’s no obvious demand for in vitro meat at the moment, its proponents say there is a need. Natural meat – the kind that originates from actual animals – is increasingly expensive, ecologically speaking. Using conventional methods, it takes 6.7 pounds of cattle feed, 52.8 gallons of water, 74.5 square feet of land and 1,036 BTUs of fossil fuel energy (enough energy to power a microwave oven for 18 minutes) to produce a quarter-pound of hamburger, according to the Journal of Animal Science.

In vitro meat production requires only a fraction of those resources.

However, don’t go looking for a lab-grown steak anytime soon. Technological advances have made bioprinting – a process in which biological elements like cells in a liquid form can be laid down upon each other in complex, three-dimensional formulations – more feasible, but nobody’s making anything yet that resembles a turkey breast or pork chop. Indeed, Modern Meadows short-term goal is to print edible slivers of meat two centimeters by one centimeter, less than half a millimeter thick.

Sounds tasty.

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