For lots of Americans, the Independence Day long weekend means celebrating with friends and family at cookouts. Grillmasters at BBQs I’ve attended have been flipping hot dogs, hamburgers and a few veggie burgers – tasty, but pretty standard fare.

Future cookout menus might be a bit more exotic, as researchers work in the lab to grow animal cells into meat people can consume. So far, they’ve been able to cultivate blobs of cells to turn into a very expensive burger or two. As carnivores wait for commercialization of this “cultured meat,” Tufts University bioengineer Natalie Rubio writes that scientists are taking on the next, tougher challenge: “growing structured cuts of meat like a steak or a chicken cutlet.”

This week The Conversation launched a global podcast series marking 50 years since the first moon landing in July 1969. “To the moon and beyond” investigates what humankind learned by visiting the moon five decades ago and what the next five decades of space exploration may hold.

And if space isn’t your thing, check out other recent stories on how a new Dalai Lama gets picked, the American minors living in Mexico or what the heck “personalized learning” means.