Chef Rich McGeown prepares to cook the world's first lab-grown beef burger during a launch event in west London, August 5, 2013. The in-vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, the first example of what its creator says could provide an answer to global food shortages and help combat climate change, was fried in a pan and tasted by two volunteers. The burger is the result of years of research by Dutch scientist Mark Post, a vascular biologist at the University of Maastricht, who is working to show how meat grown in petri dishes might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock.The meat in the burger has been made by knitting together around 20,000 strands of protein that has been cultured from cattle stem cells in Post's lab. REUTERS/Toby Melville (BRITAIN - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY ANIMALS FOOD) - RTX12AYV