A few weeks ago, we told you about 
May 27, 2008 02:00 PM
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Tue Mar 16
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A few weeks ago, we told you about the guy who regrew his finger using some "pig powder" that his biologist brother supplied him with. It sounded vaguely made-up, but it turns out the U.S. government took the pig powder stories very seriously indeed. As CNN reported today (see clip), the military is pouring millions of dollars into experiments with the substance. It's being used on soldiers who have lost fingers — and perhaps other limbs, later — in the hope that it will fool stem cells into creating new body parts for people who have lost them in accidents. Here you can see a pretty gory shot of the operation used to insert the pig dust into a man's finger stump. Apparently it will only take weeks to regrow. We'll keep you posted on whether that actually works out.
Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.
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