By Alex Watts, Sky News Online
The world's first test-tube burger, costing a whopping £250,000 to produce, has been unveiled in London.
The 5oz patty - made from lab-grown "cultured beef" - was dished up by its creator, Professor Mark Post, before journalists in Hammersmith, in the west of the capital.
The scientist-turned-chef made the most expensive beefburger in history from 20,000 tiny strips of meat grown from cow stem cells over a three-month period.
The billionaire co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, put £215,000 of his own money towards the research, saying he was doing it because it could be "transformative for the world".
Chef Richard McGeown fried the burger in sunflower oil and a knob of butter before it was sampled by Josh Schonwald, author of The Taste of Tomorrow, and food scientist Hanni Rutzler.
Ms Rutzler said it was "close to meat" but she was expecting the texture to be softer and it wasn't very juicy.
Mr Schonwald said the "absence is the fat ... it's a leanness to it but the bite feels like a conventional hamburger".
"This is kind of an unnatural experience in that I can't tell you over the past 20 years how many times I have had a burger without ketchup or onions or jalapenos or bacon."
Prof Post believes his artificial meat - known by the rather unappetising title "in-vitro meat" - could herald a food revolution and appear in supermarkets within the next 10 to 20 years.
After trying his own creation for the first time, he said: "I think it's a very good start, it proved that we can do this, that we can make it and to provide a start to build upon - I am very pleased with it."
He said he was not worried about the verdict on the taste and added that in a couple of months they should be able to add fat into the product.
The burger could help save the planet by cutting the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases currently released by livestock, and may also be deemed ethically acceptable by vegetarians because it would dramatically reduce the need to slaughter animals.
But its success or failure will ultimately depend on how much it resembles the taste, texture and price of real meat.