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Tumble Science Podcast for Kids

Can Axolotls Teach Us to Grow New Hands?

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// Why do humans usually have five fingers on each hand? And what if one day, we could grow a new finger if we lost one? //

© Tumble Media Length 00:23:06 20 February 2026 Season 11 Episode 7 Age: 6-10 , 11plus Topics: Educational , Fact , Nature , Science Country: USA Type: Episodic

Full episode description

© Tumble Media Length 00:23:06 20 February 2026 Season 11 Episode 7 Age: 6-10 , 11plus Topics: Educational , Fact , Nature , Science Country: USA Type: Episodic

The Mystery of the Barton Springs Salamander with Dr. Hayley Gillespie

The Mystery of the Barton Springs Salamander with Dr. Hayley Gillespie

This is an episodic podcast, so you can listen to it in any order, but episode one is a great place to start.

Listen to episode one here

Why do humans usually have five fingers on each hand? And what if one day, we could grow a new finger if we lost one?

In this episode, a question from six-year-old listener Ayla sends us on a journey from tiny developing embryos to one of the most amazing animals on Earth: the axolotl.

We talk with Dr. Jessica Whited, a Harvard-based biologist who studies how axolotls regrow their limbs - and why humans can’t do the same… for now! Along the way, we discover how our hands develop before we’re born, why evolution settled on five fingers, and axolotls might show us the way to regrow our own limbs.

Plus: why axolotls have to live in separate tanks (hint: they’re a little too snack-happy).

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© Tumble Media | 00:23:06

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