Where's the beef? A scientist grows hamburger meat in a laboratory.

• Position: NEWS SHORTS - Mark Post - Brief article

Don't have a cow. Have a lab burger! That's what Mark Post, a scientist from the Netherlands, is recommending. He created the first hamburger grown in a laboratory (above). Post recently held a taste test for his whopper of an invention in London, England.

The burger is made from a cow's muscle cells, which scientists grow into tiny strips of meat. About 20,000 strips are needed to make one five-ounce patty. The lab-grown meat is gray, so dyes are added to give it the pink color of regular hamburger meat.

Post says lab-raised beef could be a good option to replace our current sources of meat. The farmland and water used today to raise cows could instead be used to grow crops. Also, people who support Post's project say it could be a more humane way to raise beef, which might spare millions of cows from being harmed each year.

However, it could be...