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7:47 video Students at UCF are designing an inexpensive 3D printed arm for kids. To find out more and to get involved, check out: http://office.tumblr.com Big thanks to Microsoft and the Collective Project for introducing me to Albert and his amazing team. They are continuing to help people around the world one hand at a time and they could use your help.

Starfish can regrow lost arms, and salamanders can sprout new limbs. So why can't we? Sci Show explains the science of regeneration, and explores the limitations the humans face -- and are trying to go beyond.

4 min video While humans are working on robotic arms and new limb technology, some animals can regrow their limbs on their own. How do they do this?

Thus began a fateful test of wills. Merrell responded. Dr. Kelsey wanted more. Merrell complained to Dr. Kelsey's bosses, calling her a petty bureaucrat. She persisted. On it went. But by late 1961, the terrible evidence was pouring in. The drug - better known by its generic name, thalidomide - was causing thousands of babies in Europe, Britain, Canada and the Middle East to be born with flipperlike arms and legs and other defects.

The elusive octopus genome has finally been untangled, which should allow scientists to discover answers to long-mysterious questions about the animal's alienlike physiology: How does it camouflage itself so expertly? How does it control-and regenerate-those eight flexible arms and thousands of suckers? And, most vexing: How did a relative of the snail get to be so incredibly smart-able to learn quickly, solve puzzles and even use tools?

A nationwide outbreak of a respiratory virus last fall sent droves of children to emergency departments. The infections have now subsided, as researchers knew they would, but they have left behind a frightening mystery. Since August, 103 children in 34 states have had an unexplained, poliolike paralysis of an arm or leg. Each week, roughly three new cases of so-called acute flaccid myelitis are still reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.