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Lab-Grown Meat Approval, Underground Climate Change, Utahraptor. July 14, 2023, Part 2

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Wnyc, Natural Sciences, Friday, Life Sciences, Science

4.46.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We have a new podcast! It’s called Universe Of Art, and it’s all about artists who use science to bring their creations to the next level. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.   Where’s The Beef? Lab-Grown Meat Gets U.S. Approval People have been looking for meat-alternatives for decades. Vegetarians avoid animal products for many reasons, from concerns over animal treatment and slaughtering practices to the meat industry’s climate impacts. Methane from cows and other livestock contribute about 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions. There have been plant-based alternatives on the market for awhile now, but another method has quietly gained steam over the past decade: meat grown in a lab, using cultured cells. This past June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved two companies—Eat Just and Upside—to grow and sell cultivated chicken products in the U.S. Lab-developed beef will likely be next, while some companies are even working on cultivated pet food meat. (Lab-grown mouse meat kibble, anyone?) But will growing tissue in a lab actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and … will people even want to eat it? Joining Ira to discuss this beefy topic is Casey Crownhart, climate reporter at the MIT Technology Review, who talks about how this kind of meat is made in a lab, the challenges the industry faces, and what lab-grown beef patty tastes like.   How Rising Temperatures Are Shifting The Ground Beneath Chicago As global temperatures rise, cities are typically hotter than rural areas. Tall buildings trap heat and temperatures don’t drop nearly as low at night. Out of sight, just below the surface, it’s also getting hotter. Scientists are beginning to document the unexpected consequences of underground climate change. A new study measuring the phenomenon used sensors to track increasing temperatures underground in Chicago and map how the earth has shifted beneath the city as a result. Ira talks with the lead researcher of the study, Dr. Alessandro Rotta Loria, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University, based in Chicago, Illinois.   A Fish By Any Other Name: Inside The Effort To Bring ‘Copi’ To Dinner People who live near freshwater rivers or lakes are likely familiar with Asian Carp. The fish are not native to the U.S., but over the last few decades their populations have exploded in waterways like the Mississippi River Basin and the Illinois River. Over the last few years, there’s been a major PR campaign to move away from the name Asian Carp, in favor of a new name: “Copi.” The reason is two-fold: First, it joins a general trend of moving species’ names away from nationalistic associations, considering anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The other goal is to make the fish sound more delicious—creating a market that would incentivize fishing the Copi, hopefully reducing their populations. Joining Ira to talk about this is Jim Garvey, director of fisheries, aquaculture and aquatic sciences at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.   Thanks To A Mesozoic Hot Spot, We Finally Know How Old The Utahraptor Is Sometimes Jim Kirkland wishes he had been alive 150 years ago. That’s when the golden age of North American dinosaur discovery began, and early titans of paleontology crisscrossed the Rocky Mountains unearthing dozens of new species that became household names, from the Stegosaurus to the Brontosaurus to the Triceratops. But a close second to that era is what Kirkland gets to see these days in Utah. “I am doing that kind of discovery right now,” Kirkland said. “I’m just lucky to be alive.” Kirkland, Utah’s state paleontologist, uncovered and named the Utahraptor in 1993. The deadly predator became the official state dinosaur in 2018. To read the rest, visit sciencefriday.com.   To stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Listener supported WNYC Studios.

0:08.3

This is Science Friday. I am I. Roflato.

0:11.2

Later in the hour, how the heat from warm concrete and urban buildings is moving the earth under the cities,

0:18.0

and what action might we try to counteract it?

0:22.6

Plus, paleontologists in Utah have finally learned the true age of a famous raptor found in the state. We'll talk with a local

0:28.6

reporter about how they did that. But first, people have been looking for alternatives to meet

0:34.8

for decades. Methane from cows and other livestock contribute about 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

0:43.0

Vegetarians, they stay away from meat and some people aren't comfortable with slaughtering practices.

0:48.9

There have been plant-based alternatives on the market for quite a while now.

0:53.2

But another method has quietly gained steam

0:56.3

over the past decade, meat grown in a lab, using cultured cells. This June, the U.S. Department

1:03.1

of Agriculture gave approval to two companies to make and sell cultivated chicken products

1:09.1

in this country. But will this new method actually reduce

1:13.0

greenhouse gas emissions, and will people even want to eat it? Joining me now to give us an

1:18.5

update about this project is my guest who's been reporting on this topic, Casey Crownhart,

1:24.2

climate reporter at MIT Technology Review. She's based in New York. Welcome back to

1:30.0

Science Friday. Thanks so much for having me back. Nice to have you. So lab grown meat just got a

1:35.4

significant green light last month. Can you talk about the journey that meat alternatives have had

1:40.8

for the last couple of decades? Yeah. So you touched on this a little bit, but it's been a long road for lab-grown or cultivated meat.

1:49.7

Theoretically, this possibility has kind of been around for decades.

1:53.0

Experiments picked up in the early 2000s.

1:55.3

NASA got into this game.

...

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