A meaty questionNO.3
　　IF YOU have ever longed for a meat substitute that smelt and tasted like the real thing, but did not involve killing an animal, then your order could be ready soon. Researchers believe it will soon be possible to grow cultured meat in quantities large enough to offer the meat industry an alternative source of supply.
　　Growing muscle cells (the main component of meat) in a nutrient broth is easy. The difficulty is persuading those cells to form something that resembles real meat. Paul Kosnik, the head of engineering at a firm called Tissue Genesis, is hoping to do it by stretching the cells with mechanical anchors. This encourages them to form small bundles surrounded by connective tissue, an arrangement similar to real muscle.
　　Robert Dennis, a biomedical engineer at the University of North Carolina, believes the secret of growing healthy muscle tissue in a laboratory is to understand how it interacts with its surroundings. In nature, tissues exist as elements in a larger system and they depend on other tissues for their survival. Without appropriate stimuli from their neighbours they degenerate. Dr Dennis and his team have been working on these neighbourly interactions for the past three years and report some success in engineering two of the most important-those between muscles and tendons, and muscles and nerves.
　　At the Touro College School of Health Sciences in New York, Morris Benjaminson and his team are working on removing living tissue from fish, and then growing it in culture. This approach has the advantage that the tissue has a functioning system of blood vessels to deliver nutrients, so it should be possible to grow tissue cultures more than a millimetre thick-the current limit.
　　Henk Haagsman, a meat scientist at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, is trying to make minced pork from cultured stem cells with the backing of Stegeman, a sausage company. It could be used in sausages, burgers and sauces.
　　But why would anyone want to eat cultured meat, rather than something freshly slaughtered and just off the bone? One answer, to mix metaphors, is that it would allow vegetarians to have their meatloaf and eat it too. But the sausage�瞞eat project suggests another reason: hygiene. As Ingrid Newkirk of PETA, an animal�瞨ights group, puts it, "no one who considers what’s in a meat hot dog could genuinely express any revulsion at eating a clean cloned meat product."
　　Cultured meat could be grown in sterile conditions, avoiding Salmonella, E. coli, Campylobacter and other nasties. It could also be made healthier by adjusting its composition-introducing heart�瞗riendly omega-3 fatty acids, for example. You could even take a cell from an endangered animal and, without threatening its extinction, make meat from it. Giant�瞤anda steak, anyone?
　　substitute
　　n.代用品，代替品；v.（for）代替，替換
　�。壅骖}例句］ In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute (n.) for imaginative thought.［1999年閱讀5］
　�。劾�句精譯］ 在和一些科學(xué)家，特別是年輕科學(xué)家交談時(shí)，你可能會(huì)有這樣一種印象：他們認(rèn)為"科學(xué)方法"可以代替創(chuàng)造性思維。
　　resemble
　　v.像，類似
　　tissue
　　n.①織物，薄絹，紙巾；②（動(dòng)、植物的）組織
　　stretch
　　v.拉長(zhǎng)，延伸；n.①一段時(shí)間，一段路程；②延伸
　�。壅骖}例句］ It is a remarkable record, stretching (v.) back over 70 years-yet the BBC�餾 future is now in doubt.［1996年閱讀2］
　�。劾�句精譯］ 七十多年來(lái)，BBC可謂歷程輝煌，然而現(xiàn)在，BBC的未來(lái)卻令人疑慮。
　　vessel
　　n.①容器，器皿；②船，艦；③管，血管
　�。壅骖}例句］ Today�餾 vessels (②) can find their prey using satellites and sonar, which were not available 50 years ago.［2006年閱讀3］
　�。劾�句精譯］ 今天的漁船能夠使用五十年前沒(méi)有的衛(wèi)星和聲納來(lái)追蹤他們的獵物。
　　slaughter
　　n.屠宰，殘殺，屠殺；v.屠宰，殘殺，屠殺
　　譯文：
　　荷蘭科學(xué)家取得了一項(xiàng)用細(xì)胞"培育"肉類，并出售給人類食用的計(jì)劃的專利權(quán)。
　　阿姆斯特丹大學(xué)皮膚學(xué)專家維特·韋斯特霍夫稱，可以用在實(shí)驗(yàn)室的培養(yǎng)皿中培育皮膚細(xì)胞的方法來(lái)培育肌肉組織。出售這種在實(shí)驗(yàn)室中培育的肉類將使大量動(dòng)物免遭屠宰。
　　韋斯特霍夫正在尋求投資者。他認(rèn)為，可以在容積為5000升的巨型培養(yǎng)池中培育每塊至少50克的現(xiàn)成瘦肉塊。
　　他和另外兩位商人在全球很多地方都取得了這項(xiàng)計(jì)劃的專利權(quán)。專利證書稱贊這種肉沒(méi)有脂肪和軟骨。豬、牛、雞、袋鼠和鯨魚的細(xì)胞全都可以使用。
　　這項(xiàng)計(jì)劃仍需改進(jìn)，因?yàn)槠�今的試�?yàn)結(jié)果顯示，細(xì)胞要2��3天才能增加一倍。
　　一個(gè)食用肉類的問(wèn)題
　　如果你曾經(jīng)希望能有一種肉類的替代品，聞起來(lái)和嘗起來(lái)都像真的，但是并不是通過(guò)殺害動(dòng)物得來(lái)的，那么你的要求將在不久之后得到滿足。研究者相信培養(yǎng)肉類馬上就可能大量生產(chǎn)，作為一種供給的替代品供應(yīng)肉類工業(yè)。
　　在富有營(yíng)養(yǎng)的肉湯中使瘦肉細(xì)胞成長(zhǎng)（肉類的主要成分）是一件容易的事情。困難在于使這些細(xì)胞能組成像真的肉類那樣的東西。一個(gè)名為"組織創(chuàng)世紀(jì)"公司的工程師的首領(lǐng)Paul Kosnrk希望利用機(jī)械錨定技術(shù)來(lái)拉伸細(xì)胞。這種技術(shù)刺激細(xì)胞形成被結(jié)締組織環(huán)繞的細(xì)小肌肉束，和真的肌肉的組織形式相類似。
　　北卡羅來(lái)納州立大學(xué)的生物醫(yī)學(xué)工程師Robert Dennis相信，在實(shí)驗(yàn)室中培養(yǎng)出健康的肌肉組織的秘密在于理解肌肉組織是怎樣和環(huán)境相互作用的。自然界中，肌肉組織作為一個(gè)更大的機(jī)體組織的基礎(chǔ)而存在，并且依靠這個(gè)機(jī)體中的其他組織而存在。如果沒(méi)有它們的鄰居適當(dāng)?shù)拇碳�，它們就將退化。Dennis博士和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)在過(guò)去的三年里研究了這些相似的組織的相互作用，并且發(fā)表了在兩個(gè)比較重要的生物工程學(xué)方面成功的研究--肌肉組織和結(jié)締組織的關(guān)系，以及肌肉組織和神經(jīng)組織的關(guān)系。
　　在紐約托羅大學(xué)的保健科學(xué)學(xué)院，Morris Benjaminson和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)正在研究怎樣從魚的身體上取下活體組織，然后人工培養(yǎng)。這種方法的優(yōu)點(diǎn)是，組織有一個(gè)輸送養(yǎng)分功能的血管系統(tǒng)，這樣它就可以在人工環(huán)境中生長(zhǎng)出超過(guò)厘米數(shù)量級(jí)的厚度--這也是現(xiàn)今生長(zhǎng)的極限。
　　荷蘭Utrecht 大學(xué)的肉類科學(xué)家Henk Haagsman正在試圖從Stegeman香腸公司得到對(duì)其碎塊豬肉的支持，這些豬肉塊源于人工生長(zhǎng)的細(xì)胞。這種材料可以用到香腸，漢堡和壽司中去。
　　然而，為什么一個(gè)人想要食用人工的，而不是剛宰了并剔骨后的新鮮的肉類呢？含糊地說(shuō)，這樣可以讓素食者們擁有并享用他們理想的肉塊。但是香腸肉類工程還有另外一個(gè)原因：衛(wèi)生。正如動(dòng)物權(quán)利組織PETA的Ingrid Newkrik指出的："想到熱狗里面的肉原來(lái)是什么時(shí)，沒(méi)有人會(huì)在心底里反對(duì)食用干凈的克隆肉類制品"。
　　人工肉類可以在無(wú)菌環(huán)境中培養(yǎng)起來(lái)，以避免沙門氏菌，大腸桿菌，彎曲狀桿菌以及其他臟東西。也可以通過(guò)對(duì)成分的調(diào)節(jié)來(lái)使得其更加健康--例如，引進(jìn)有益心臟的omega��3型脂肪酸。在絲毫不威脅到物種種群的情況下，你甚至還可以從快要滅絕的動(dòng)物身上取下細(xì)胞，用這些細(xì)胞來(lái)培養(yǎng)成肉。大熊貓肉排，還有呢？