An interesting suggestion raised by a commenter on the article:
It's not what they're doing, but what could be
done; living cell arranged in such a controlled way could easily build replacement organs or even limbs, opening a whole new field in medicine and giving hope to thousands.
This is a really neat possibility. We aren't exactly lacking hamburgers in the world, so once the meat-printing tests move forward, if this 3D printing of bio-material becomes cheaper and more accessible, we could possibly print 'real' human muscle or skin etc. that could be used in replacement of skin grafts on burn victims for example.
Also perhaps in the more distant future the chance to print entire limbs of people to transplant on. The medical appplications of 3D bio-printing is the direction I can see this heading. Very cool stuff.
We were doing it back in 1999 at UW. You don't need to 3d print it - you need to lay down a lattice made of fiber small enough that the cells don't see it as foreign material. Don't see it as foreign material? It doesn't reject. Lattices of nanofiber laid over burns would grow skin in some trials - not scar tissue, which is devoid of follicles, pores or any other functional dermal structures, but good, pure, epidermis. The fact that we were there in 1999 and you still haven't seen it commercially should say something about the difficulty of bioengineering.
Yet another way to disconnect us from the food we eat an promote a lack of appreciate for what we put into our bodies.
Is meat the ideal food? If we are synthesizing food, shouldn't we be creating the ideal "super food"? I'm shocked that the equivalent of a Jetsons style vending machine that puts out a small bite with all the right nutrients doesn't exist. But I guess that's what "Cliff" bars etc are, right? -surely we can do better though. I'm thinking of the gum from Willy Wonka that replicates a 4 course meal. -3D print that
Theoretically, if you had a portion of this super-food, which was the size of a piece of gum, yet had enough nutrients packed into it to sustain you for a full day. Similar to Willy Wonka's gum. Would you still feel hunger? I have a feeling that even with the perfect energy and nutrients in a tiny portion, still lacks the volume required to fill your stomach. Still an good point/idea with amazing potential.
I think the stomach naturally will shrink over time and change "it's expectations". At first you would feel the hunger but eventually, you'd establish a "new normal". This is just a guess based on some fasting I've done.