# If you have a piece of meat, can you grow more? (warning: disgusting post)



## TheYellowMustang (May 22, 2014)

I know scientists have managed to grow meat in a lab. However, it took months and cost 300 000 dollars. My characters aren't sponsored by google, unfortunately. 

But if you cut a slice of flesh from your thigh, if you already had some meat, could you make the muscle fibers grow? Because I think those scientists grew the meat from scratch and I couldn't find any articles on people turning one steak into ten.

If the answer is a definite no, can you think of something else that an alien who's allergic to food could eat? I figured since his own body is the only thing on earth that came from his home planet, he could ... uh... eat himself. Heh.


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## bookmasta (May 22, 2014)

What if this alien was a vegetarian?


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## TheYellowMustang (May 22, 2014)

bookmasta said:


> What if this alien was a vegetarian?


What if he's not a cannibal? :-& :hopelessness:

EDIT: If you had to choose, would you eat meat from your own body or starve to death? I love games like that. The horror movie Would You Rather, for example - I can tell it's not a quality movie, but my god did I enjoy it.


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## bookmasta (May 22, 2014)

Honestly, it came down to a scenario like that, where I had to choose between eating myself because there is no other option for subsistence or starving to death, I think I would skip both and go for option C: suicide.


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## Cran (May 22, 2014)

TheYellowMustang said:


> I know scientists have managed to grow meat in a lab. However, it took months and cost 300 000 dollars. My characters aren't sponsored by google, unfortunately.
> 
> But if you cut a slice of flesh from your thigh, if you already had some meat, could you make the muscle fibers grow? Because I think those scientists grew the meat from scratch and I couldn't find any articles on people turning one steak into ten.
> 
> If the answer is a definite no, can you think of something else that an alien who's allergic to food could eat? I figured since his own body is the only thing on earth that came from his home planet, he could ... uh... eat himself. Heh.


For humans, natural regeneration and repair would not be sufficient to replace even the minimum needed to consume for survival. 

That need not be the case for your alien, who might have regenerative capabilities more on par with our segmented worms (cut one in half, and soon you have two living worms) or skinks (can disengage their tails to escape capture, and then grow new tails over a few days) or starfish (can fully regenerate/replace damaged or lost limbs). 

As a long term sole diet, however, it would likely not be healthy, if your alien normally requires a varied diet to ensure the right minerals balance. To address this, your alien could obtain the required minerals directly from the environment instead of via organic processing as we normally do; this would even bypass the need to crop own limbs for sustenance. 

It would be as unpleasant and bland as it sounds for a being used to eating plants and animals; it would be like us living on vitamin pills and water.


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## Kevin (May 22, 2014)

Sounds like a rube-goldberg device... you have to consume energy to grow/re-grow so you might as well just eat (consume)... and not of yourself. Even digestion requires it (energy) so it's a loss from the get go... unless you add more energy to the equation. Were not plants, so we can't just get it from the light and the air. We have to eat, constantly. So... unless your alien is able to absorb energy like a plant, or... he could be nuclear powered (which is still a loss) but is a very efficient use (splitting his own atoms) and long lasting.


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## TheYellowMustang (May 23, 2014)

Cran said:


> For humans, natural regeneration and repair would not be sufficient to replace even the minimum needed to consume for survival.
> 
> That need not be the case for your alien, who might have regenerative capabilities more on par with our segmented worms (cut one in half, and soon you have two living worms) or skinks (can disengage their tails to escape capture, and then grow new tails over a few days) or starfish (can fully regenerate/replace damaged or lost limbs).
> 
> ...


I was thinking that once he began consuming lab-made alien meat he'd also be able to digest some vegetables and such. He's half human. The regenerative thing sounds really cool, but I don't think it would be possible, would it? I mean isn't that like moving energy instead of adding it?




Kevin said:


> Sounds like a rube-goldberg device... you have to consume energy to grow/re-grow so you might as well just eat (consume)... and not of yourself. Even digestion requires it (energy) so it's a loss from the get go... unless you add more energy to the equation. Were not plants, so we can't just get it from the light and the air. We have to eat, constantly. So... unless your alien is able to absorb energy like a plant, or... he could be nuclear powered (which is still a loss) but is a very efficient use (splitting his own atoms) and long lasting.


I was hoping it could work since only a very small percentage of the meat would've actually come from his body. I just have to figure out a way for them to turn a dice of meat into a full fridge, how to grow meat in a lab.


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## Kevin (May 23, 2014)

> for them to turn a dice of meat into a full fridge,


 Is that  'cloning'?    





> ...how to grow meat in a lab.


 not beat a dead horse but... those petri dishes... the scientists/farmers must've added  'nutrients', no? JAT.


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## Cran (May 23, 2014)

TheYellowMustang said:


> I was thinking that once he began consuming lab-made alien meat he'd also be able to digest some vegetables and such. He's half human. The regenerative thing sounds really cool, but I don't think it would be possible, would it? I mean isn't that like moving energy instead of adding it?


Yes; as pointed out by Kevin, the energy equation is against it being more than a desperate stop-gap measure. The half-human bit changes the game somewhat, if only because it suggests a contradiction to the nutrient incompatibility issue - stepping more into the area of genetic disorder (the one-in-multimillion occurrence / boy-in-bubble thing). 




> I was hoping it could work since only a very small percentage of the meat would've actually come from his body. I just have to figure out a way for them to turn a dice of meat into a full fridge, how to grow meat in a lab.


Yes - as Kevin pointed out; that's more like cloning. With time and the technology available, it could provide the answer; certainly the lab samples wouldn't complain about the taste of processed minerals.


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## TheYellowMustang (May 23, 2014)

Kevin said:


> not beat a dead horse but... those petri dishes... the scientists/farmers must've added 'nutrients', no? JAT.


Oh, you mean like "food" for the cells to grow? I didn't think about that... Hm. 

:dejection: I'm in over my head. 

I don't think it would be impossible, with the right research, imagination and setting. It's just that these characters, they're three young people who live in an abandoned train station and live off food thrown out by restaurants and grocery stores. One of them has the brain for it, but where they'd get the equipment...



Cran said:


> The half-human bit changes the game somewhat, if only because it suggests a contradiction to the nutrient incompatibility issue - stepping more into the area of genetic disorder (the one-in-multimillion occurrence / boy-in-bubble thing).


You mean it would be more realistic if he, because he's got a human and an alien parent, had a genetic disorder similar to (for example) an immune system disorder? 

I'm having one of those days when it just feels like the language center in my brain is shut off, so sorry if I didn't catch your point. I think, after having given this a lot of though, I might need more coffee.


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## Morkonan (May 23, 2014)

TheYellowMustang said:


> ..But if you cut a slice of flesh from your thigh, if you already had some meat, could you make the muscle fibers grow? Because I think those scientists grew the meat from scratch and I couldn't find any articles on people turning one steak into ten.
> 
> If the answer is a definite no, can you think of something else that an alien who's allergic to food could eat? I figured since his own body is the only thing on earth that came from his home planet, he could ... uh... eat himself. Heh.



If you're writing "Science Fiction", then yes, you can make the alien cut off his own muscle tissue, grow it into more and then eat it. The problem is that you've got to get an energy cycle going and the "meat" is going to require nutrients in order to grow new muscle fiber. It's also, likely, going to need to be "exercised", so he might have to hook up these muscle masses to some sort of wind-powered work-out mill.... So, that's a lot of energy these "muscles" are going to be taking up. Perhaps, energy best used for more direct methods of nourishment, depending upon your setting.

"Meat" can be grown in a lab, today. IIRC, typically using a substrate material as a supportive latice, stem cells are introduced to muscle tissue and begin to emulate it. Wonderful sci-fi tool, those stem cells... 

So, there are real-world analogues to what you're trying to do. I will say that "artificially grown" meat has a reputation for not tasting very good and is prohibitively expensive in order to produce. But, your alien doesn't have to have any of these issues. The scientific foundation for what you wish to do is present, today, and you can expand upon it in a plausible fashion in your science-fiction story. No worries.


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## Blade (May 23, 2014)

TheYellowMustang said:


> I don't think it would be impossible, with the right research, imagination and setting. It's just that these characters, they're three young people who live in an abandoned train station and live off food thrown out by restaurants and grocery stores. One of them has the brain for it, but where they'd get the equipment...


Or the time and financing. The research sounds somewhat 'trial and error' and might take considerable time to bring up to speed.


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