InstituteOfFoodResearch
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UK researchers build artificial stomach, antacid software coming soon
Think you have an iron stomach? British scientists at the Institute of Food Research built one that won't get indigestion from that triple-patty chili cheeseburger you had for lunch. IFR's artificial stomach simulates human digestion, and is made of "sophisticated plastics and metals" to endure all the natural chemicals and enzymes an actual stomach has. According to the BBC, chief designer Dr. Martin Wickham claims that his design improves on previous models (models? plural?) as it actually simulates contractions the stomach uses to process food. But why build such a model, unless you're a big stomach nerd scientist type? It turns out that the stomach's processes are still something of a mystery, and that these researchers would like to be able to develop healthier foods that can "manipulate the digestive process," or as we'd prefer, "hack the digestive process." Now, while the artificial stomach does have the ability to throw up (we're not really sure how that's triggered), we do hope that those boffins are standing well back when they run that particular experiment.[Via Spluch]Read - BBCRead - The Associated Press
