If the biotech industry has its way, ordering a hamburger might soon sound something like this: “one charbroiled cloned-beef patty, with genetically modified cheese, lab-grown bacon and vitamin-C-fortified lettuce, on a protein-spiked bun.” The burger of the future is delicious, nutritious and contains more engineering than a stealth bomber.

Hovering above the floor in a darkened room called the CAVE (for “cave automated virtual environment”) is the larger-than-life-size virtual patient CAVEman, the world’s most sophisticated digital model of the human body. To create it, scientists at the University of Calgary and graphic artists used anatomy texts and specimens to render every organ, bone, nerve and biological system into detailed 3-D images.