Need a Hand? The Military is Growing New Limbs

(Our happy-hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.)

The Department of Defense says it will begin research into regrowing lost body parts as a way of helping injured soldiers integrate back into society.

Led by the new "Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine", the DoD will try to fully reintegrate U.S. service members who have undergone amputations back into society ... by growing them new limbs.

With a budget of $250 million, AFIRM will use stem-cell research to create new skin, muscles, arms and legs.

Amazingly, this is nothing new. The military has been regrowing body parts with extracellular matrices for over three years now, and recently announced the production of a fully-functional disembodied rat heart.

(Any service members in need of a rat heart, step right up.)