Q:They can weigh more than half a kilogram (about a pound), tasting a bit like a piece of veal and with recipes available for making them up into "meat" loaf, even smoothies. So why have vegetarians taken such a fancy to them?

Clue: Tom Cruise famously announced his intention to eat one.

A: Cruise was talking about his expectant wife's placenta, nature's remarkable organ for the developing fetus that acts as substitute lungs, stomach, liver, bladder, says Katherine Robertson of the University of Cambridge, UK, in "New Scientist."

Cells known as trophoblasts hijack the maternal blood system to ...

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