# Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2023, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864 "2023-03-30T04:25:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/1 "2023-03-30T04:25:53Z")
[Meatball from long-extinct mammoth created by food firm](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/28/meatball-mammoth-created-cultivated-meat-firm) Technically, it shouldn’t be any more expensive to lab grow any strain of meat over another other than minor variations in nutrient costs. And while I’m no Nostradamus, from almost exactly 10 years ago… > [@Ask the guy who is from 100 years in the future](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-from-100-years-in-the-future/618490/91): > > Also, what was the name of the first cloned wooly mammoth? How do they taste? (There is a McMammoth’s franchise chain, right?) Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys! - Ugluk ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/2 "2023-03-30T05:15:12Z")
Interesting. I look forward to my velociraptor and brie pizza. Does this mean those with latent cannibal tendencies could have a medium rare human rump steak? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/3 "2023-03-30T07:30:52Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Does this mean those with latent cannibal tendencies could have a medium rare human rump steak? Trump rump. > Ladies and gentlemen,’ Li said, standing with a bowl in one hand and a silver fork in the other. ‘A little taste of Earth … no; more than that: a chance for you to participate in the rough and tumble of living on a squalid backwater planet without actually having to leave your seat or get your feet dirty.’ He stabbed a bit of the meat, put it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. ‘Human flesh, ladies and gents; cooked muscle of hom. sap. … as I suspect few of you might have guessed. A little on the sweet side for my palate, but quite acceptable. Eat up.’ > > I shook my head. Roghres snorted. Tel put her spoon down. I sampled some of Li’s unusual dish while he continued. ‘I had the ship take a few cells from a variety of people on Earth. Without their knowledge, of course.’ He waved the sword vaguely at the table behind us. ‘Most of you over there will be eating either Stewed Idi Amin or General Pinochet Chilli Con Carne; here in the centre we have a combination of General Stroessner Meat Balls and Richard Nixon Burgers. The rest of you have Ferdinand Marcos Sauté and Shah of Iran Kebabs. There are, in addition, scattered bowls of Fricaséed Kim II Sung, Boiled General Videla, and Ian Smith in Black Bean Sauce … all done just right by the excellent - if leaderless - chef we have around us. Eat up! Eat up!’ > > We ate up, most of us quite amused. One or two thought the idea a little too outre, and some affected boredom because they thought Li needed discouragement not accomplices, while a few were just too full already. But the majority laughed and ate, comparing tastes and textures. > ‘If they could see us now,’ Roghres giggled. ‘Cannibals from outer space!’ (From _State of the Art_ by Iain M Banks.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/4 "2023-03-30T12:03:18Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Does this mean those with latent cannibal tendencies could have a medium rare human rump steak? See short side discussion from two days ago commencing here and resuming a few posts later: > [@Would you want to keep a bone surgically removed from your body?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-keep-a-bone-surgically-removed-from-your-body/981783/30): > > Im getting two big chunks cut off my femurs at the end of April. Those should make some significant stock bones. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/5 "2023-03-30T12:22:03Z")
From the article linked in the OP: > No one has yet tasted the mammoth meatball. “We haven’t seen this protein for thousands of years,” said Wolvetang. “So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. Could an animal protein be that unfamiliar to a normal human immune system, that it could cause a bad reaction? Didn’t our ancestors basically hunt and eat them to extincion? ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/6 "2023-03-30T12:31:26Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Could an animal protein be that unfamiliar to a normal human immune system, that it could cause a bad reaction? Didn’t our ancestors basically hunt and eat them to extincion? Incoherent WAG. The immune system is responsible for things like rejecting transplanted organs too. Right? Not only fighting bacteria/virus. And since the mammoth era, some of us have evolved to tolerate lactose as adults, so… wild conjecture… the immune system we have today is probably(?), certainly(??) not the same at all as the one we survived with 10K years ago. Not only regarding lactose, but a bunch of other stuff as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-scientists-were-so-preoccupied-with-whether-or-not-they-could-they-didn-t-stop-to-think-if-they-should/981864/7 "2023-03-30T12:55:06Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Trump rump. Ptooey! Dan