How to grow an arm

Using tiny electrical currents to go from stump to fully functioning appendage

By Rachel Feltman

Updated on Jun 2, 2021

New Arm
The process is as fast as normal human fetal growth. That means a 25-year-old solder who lost an arm to a roadside bomb would have to wait a decade, until the age of 35, for the arm of a middle-schooler—but one that would be fully functioning. Illustration by Todd Detwiler

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This article explains a theoretical limb regeneration process being developed by bioengineer Michael Levin. Read our profile of him here.

man missing an arm
Biodome
Ion Flood
Gene Trigger

This article was originally published in the January/February 2017 issue of Popular Science, under the title “How To Grow An Arm.”

 

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Rachel Feltman

Editor-at-Large

Rachel Feltman is Editor-at-Large at Popular Science. She hosts and oversees the hit podcast The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week, and helps to fill the magazine’s digital pages with thrilling features. She lives in Jersey City with her surprisingly tall husband and surprisingly old cat.