Scientists in the Netherlands say they hope to produce the first laboratory-grown hamburger by fall, according to news reports out of a conference in Canada. USA Today reports that using cow stem cells grown in a petri dish, the researchers have created small strips of muscle that will be mixed with blood and artificially grown fat to make a hamburger.

Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is being courted to cook "a golf ball-size of this stuff," physiologist Mark Post of Maastricht University said at a news conference Sunday in Vancouver, British Columbia, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Last June, an Oxford University study concluded that compared with conventionally grown and produced meat, "in vitro" or "cultured" meat would generate 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, use 45% less energy, reduce land use by 99% and cut water use by 96%.

Source: USA Today