2030年實驗室養殖火雞將上圣誕餐桌

科學家預測，2030年端上圣誕餐桌的火雞將可能是實驗室的培養肉，這種培養火雞肉不用殺生又環保，而且這樣一來很多素食主義者也可以品嘗到火雞肉的美味了。

In 1931, Winston Churchill predicted that within 50 years the world would "escape the absurdity" of raising a whole chicken on farm and instead grow parts in lab.
1931年，英國首相溫斯頓?丘吉爾曾預言，50年內，人類將不需在農場里“荒謬”地養殖整雞，而是在實驗室里養殖出雞的各個部位。

Now scientists are predicting that his vision will come to pass within the next 15 years, with the first lab-grown turkey gracing Christmas tables by 2030.
而今科學家預測，丘吉爾的設想將在15年內成真——到2030年底前，實驗室里養的火雞肉將首次出現在圣誕餐桌上。

Paul Mozdziak, professor of poultry science at North Carolina State University, is confident that in the future meat will be grown in 5,000 gallon drums and factory farming will be replaced by large scale "cellular agriculture".
北卡羅來納州立大學家禽學教授保羅?莫茲達愛克信心滿滿地認為，動物肉將可在5000加侖大的圓桶內養殖，工廠化養殖也將為大規模的“細胞農業”所取代。

“Years from now, when people are in the grocery story trying to decide if they want to buy traditional versus cultivated meat, I am 100 percent sure that culture meat is going to be just as cheap, if not cheaper,” Prof Mozdziak told MIT Technology Review.
莫茲達愛克教授告訴《麻省理工大學科技評論》：“我百分之百確定，多年以后，人們在雜貨店里猶豫要買傳統肉還是培養肉時，就算培養肉沒比傳統肉便宜，二者價格也至少會持平。”

Although the idea of biotech companies growing meat in a lab might seem ethically dubious, it has won the backing of environmentalists and animal rights campaigners who say it would reduce the reliance on battery animals and save resources.
盡管生物科技公司在實驗室培養肉類似乎存在倫理爭議，但卻得到了環保主義者和動物權益倡導者的支持，他們認為，培養肉類既能減輕人類對機械化飼養動物的依賴，又能節約能源。

Livestock farming has the biggest carbon footprint of any food and producing beef in vitro could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent.
畜牧業是所有食物產業中碳足跡最大的，通過體外培養的方式生產牛肉能減少90%的溫室氣體排放。

Surveys have also shown that vegetarians would eat meat if it were grown in a lab, so it could open a lucrative new market for investors.
此外，調查顯示，素食者愿意食用實驗室里培養出來的肉，這可能會為投資者打開一個利潤豐厚的新市場。

The process works by taking a small piece of turkey breast and isolating special stem cells which form muscle fibre. Those cells are then placed in a soup of sugar and amino acids which tricks them into thinking they are still inside the turkey and need to continue dividing.
培養火雞肉的過程如下：取一小塊火雞胸肉，從中分離出能形成肌肉纖維的特殊干細胞，將其置于含糖和氨基酸的液體中，這些干細胞就會以為自己還在火雞體內，然后繼續分裂出更多細胞。

A single satellite cell can undergo 75 generations of division during three months, which in theory could produce enough muscle to make 20 trillion turkey nuggets.
三個月內，一個衛星細胞能分裂高達75次。理論上，該細胞培養出的肉能做出20萬億塊火雞雞塊。

At present, culture meat is not economically viable. When the first hamburger was created in 2013, it took three months to grow at a cost of ￡220,000.
由于經濟原因，培養肉類目前尚不可行。2013年，第一個合成肉漢堡誕生，培養這塊肉耗時三個月，耗資22萬英鎊。

And creating a turkey-size amount of meat in Professor Mozdziak's lab would currently take more than ￡20,000 worth of growth serum.
目前，在莫茲達愛克教授的實驗室里，想要培養出火雞那么大的一塊肉需要價值2萬多英鎊的生長血清。

However, the team is now working alongside biomedical engineer David Kaplan at Tufts University, Massachusetts, who is looking for a way to grow cells in 3D, not just flat sheets, which would radically speed up the process and lower the cost.
然而，莫茲達愛克教授的團隊正與馬薩諸塞州塔夫茨大學的生物醫學工程師大衛?卡普蘭合作，后者正在尋找培養三維細胞的方法，而不只是平面二維細胞。一旦成功，這項技術將極大提升培養肉類的速度，并大幅降低其成本。

The team predicts that the first meat could be available on shelves by 2030.
該團隊預測第一批培養肉將于2030年底前上市。

英文來源：每日電訊報
翻譯：夏燁（中國日報網愛新聞iNews譯者）
編審：丹妮