Nowadays, FIFA's view is that the quality of the game is decidedly better on an artificial pitch than on a poorly maintained natural one-which is often the case in Africa.

On the face of it, then, artificial life looks like a wonderful thing. Yet that is not how many will view the announcement.

While the liquored-up setting might seem unconventional, they view their work in a real life setting as a valuable counterbalance to highly artificial in-lab psychological studies.