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Google's Brin backs first lab-grown burger

Zero cows were killed in the making of the burger, a humane angle that is apparently what intrigued Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Luke Westaway Senior editor
Luke Westaway is a senior editor at CNET and writer/ presenter of Adventures in Tech, a thrilling gadget show produced in our London office. Luke's focus is on keeping you in the loop with a mix of video, features, expert opinion and analysis.
Luke Westaway
Synthetic burger
Synthetic meat, real table manners. via Crave UK,CulturedBeef.net

Google's Sergey Brin has said that he funded a Dutch university's project to craft the world's first lab-grown burger.

The slab of synthetic meat, seen above, was grown using cells from a cow's shoulder, which were grown into strips of meat, which in turn were mushed into a patty that required the killing of precisely zero cows.

Cooking up the world's first in-vitro beef burger (pictures)

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That humane angle is apparently what intrigued Google co-founder Brin, who appeared in a video posted on The Guardian to say, "We have a vision in our minds of pristine farms, couple of cows, couple of chickens, but that's not actually how meat gets produced today."

The project apparently cost a whopping 250,000 euros ($332,000), but could offer a glimpse at the future of food production. The burger was cooked and eaten today at an event in London.

Read more of "Google co-founder bankrolls world's first lab-grown burger" at Crave UK.