This "Living Food" Is Either a Delicacy or a Thing of Nightmares

Today in news that'll make you squirm: the intersection of science and sustenance, aka living food.

Thanks to the good work of artist and apparent gourmand Minsu Kim, foodies might soon pick, prod and poke at their food squirming right on the plate. Video of Kim's living food (which isn't actually alive, but moves and twitches like it is because of something called "synthetic biology") was first uploaded to Vimeo in 2013, but is making the rounds on social media this week.

The curious culinary creations include this concoction, which has several moving tentacles:

And this, which looks like a gyrating (twerking?) worm:

To achieve the movements, Kim, who was a student at the Royal College of Art in London, charged organic compounds present in the dish with energy; the metabolizing of the energy is what causes the motion. Like a battery, the food will only squirm and gyrate until its energy is expended. 

"This project explores new culinary experiences through developments in synthetic biology, and finds its lineage in haute cuisine and molecular gastronomy," Kim said in 2013, according to Dezeen. "What if food was able to play with our cutlery and create hyper-sensations in our mouth?"

While Kim's creations haven't made their way into mainstream kitchens just yet — and in some ways, present more questions than they answer — it certainly has set the bar for innovative dining experiences pretty high. 

Brave eaters — bon appétit! 

Read more: I Went Under the Sheets of New York's Professional Cuddling Industry — Here's What I Found