66 Science & technology The EconomistJanuary 30th 2021
2 standard set has a hundred or so leds. Mini
leds can be packed together by the thou-
sand. This multiplication permits different
areas of the backlight to be brightened or
dimmed independently of one another.
The result, says Samsung, is that dark areas
on the screen can be made darker and
bright areas brighter, thus allowing mini-
ledtelevisions to get even closer to rival-
ling the images produced by oledsets.
lgdisagrees. It reckons mini-led tvs
are limited in their ability to increase levels
of contrast, and are still eclipsed by oled
televisions. To retain that advantage, lg
has developed new organic materials and
made other changes it is more cagey about.
Because these new materials are around
20% more efficient at producing light, the
firm says its oleds can now display even
brighter and more vivid images.
That oled tvs do not have to bother
with a backlight helps with innovation of
other sorts, as well. Both types of screen, if
set on a plastic rather than a glass sub-
strate, can be made pliable. But this is sim-
pler to do with oledscreens as they have
fewer layers. Hence oleds are the screens
of choice in foldable mobile phones.It’s showtime
Pliable screens are now spreading to televi-
sions. At the ces, lgannounced a bendable
tv. Curved-screen televisions have been
available for several years, but have not
been successful. Such a screen may suit a
single viewer, who can seat himself at the
optimal point to benefit from its curvature,
but it is not so great for a family looking at it
from different directions. Bendable tvs get
around this problem, lgsays, because their
screens can be curved around a single
viewer (a proposition particularly appeal-
ing to some gamers) or straightened out for
group audiences. Intriguingly, lg’s benda-
ble screen can also be made to vibrate, and
thus to work as a giant loudspeaker (see
box on previous page).
Since they have no backlight to get in
the way, oledscreens can even be made
transparent—and such screens are already
beginning to be deployed in shops and mu-
seums, and as see-through corporate-
information boards. At the ces, lg dis-
played a consumer version which works as
a television. The 55-inch set in question
was featured at the foot of a bed, where it
could be raised and lowered.
Whether that was a gimmick or a seri-
ous test of the market is not clear. lghas
given no indication of when a transparent
television might actually go on sale. As the
television war continues, though, it is a fair
bet that consumers will be in for more such
treats. Since the days of John Logie Baird,
the television’s inventor, manufacturers
have constantly tried to outdo one another
with better technology. They will continue
to do so for many years to come. 7P
et owners, at least in the West, are
more likely than other people to be ve-
getarians or vegans. That puts many of
them in a quandary when it comes to feed-
ing fully paid-up carnivores such as cats
and dogs. But technology may soon resolve
this dilemma. The idea of growing meat for
human consumption from scratch, in the
form of cell cultures, is now becoming pop-
ular. Some see in this approach a way to
produce guilt-free pet food, too. Among
these visionaries are Shannon Falconer
and Joshua Errett, the founders of Because
Animals, a firm based in Philadelphia.
They have taken the idea to what might be
seen as its logical conclusion, for the start-
ing point for their cultured cat food is that
favourite feline prey, a mouse.
Mice are, indeed, what brought cats and
people together in the first place—the two
species having a shared predatory interest
in the rodent populations that inhabited
the grain stores accumulated by early farm-
ers. To square this primordial feline appe-
tite with the modern world’s more refined
sensibilities, researchers at Because Ani-
mals isolated murine stem cells, which
will multiply explosively if treated well,
from a biopsy of the skin of an appropriate
rodent, and have so multiplied them. The
result, the firm hopes, will be on the mar-
ket by the end of the year.
Lest any sensitive pet-owner worry thateven a single mouse was exploited in an
unjustified way to achieve this, the firm is
at pains to clarify that the cell donor has re-
tired to live with one of its scientists in a
“plush mouse house”. That is definitely a
wise and diplomatic move. One of Because
Animals’ competitors, Wild Earth, of
Berkeley, California, which had had similar
thoughts about making cat food from cul-
tured mouse cells, chose to withdraw after
finding itself on the receiving end of hos-
tile responses based on the misapprehen-
sion that the production process would in-
volve killing laboratory rodents.
Wild Earth has now retreated to safer
ground. It has teamed up with other devel-
opers of cultured meat to investigate the
possibilities of fish and chicken cells in-
stead. It plans, also by the end of the year, to
launch products made by mixing these
with its existing vegan pet food formulae.
A third firm, Bond Pet Foods of Boulder,
Colorado, is developing something one
step yet further removed from conven-
tional pet food. It, too, works with chick-
ens. But instead of growing their cells di-
rectly, it is inserting genes for nutritionally
important chicken proteins into cells of
brewer’s yeast. These reproduce faster than
chicken cells do, and nurturing them is a
well-understood art. Bond hopes to have
dog food containing proteins extracted
from these cells on the market by 2023.Ciao chow
As a consequence of their target market—
devoted “pet parents”, as industry parlance
refers to them—all three firms hope to sell
at premium prices. Moreover, manufactur-
ers of laboratory meat, whether intended
for people or for pets, can claim green cre-
dentials on top of conscience-free carni-
vory. Dr Falconer says that a kilogram of
cultured meat generates just 1.7kg of car-
bon-dioxide emissions, compared with
27kg attributable to the same quantity of
beef. Vats of cells also require far less land
and water than farmed animals.
Turning cultured cells into pet food is a
clever idea for reasons besides pet-owners’
sensibilities towards the animal origin of
their charges’ food. Unlike human custom-
ers, pets are not in a position to be fussy
about what the food they eat actually looks
like. And they are, in any case, used to con-
suming dried kibble and nondescript wet
foods. It is easier to turn cultured cells into
these than into something resembling the
juicy joints and steaks that many people
like to tuck into. As long as the concoctions
taste good to a pet, they will be wolfed
down. Indeed, both Mr Errett and Rich Kel-
leman, the founder of Bond Pet Foods,
claim to have tested their firms’ prototypes
on their own pets. And Ryan Bethencourt,
one of the founders of Wild Earth, has gone
further. He has promised to taste his own
wares before trying them on animals. 7Lab-grown meat may solve some pet
owners’ dilemmasCell cultures as pet foodTry it on the dog
You put what in it?!