Robert O. Becker was a U.S. orthopedic surgeon

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

 and researcher in electrophysiology

Electrophysiology

Electrophysiology is the study of the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues. It involves measurements of voltage change or electric current on a wide variety of scales from single ion channel proteins to whole organs like the heart...

/electromedicine. He worked mainly as professor at Upstate Medical Center in State University of New York

State University of New York

The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...

, Syracuse, and as Director of Orthopedic Surgery

Orthopedic surgery

Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system...

 at the Veterans Administration Hospital

Veterans Health Administration

The Veterans Health Administration is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the medical assistance program of the VA through the administration and operation of numerous VA outpatient clinics,...

, Syracuse, New York.

His research

Having observed in his clinical practice that broken bones sometimes failed to grow together, he set out to study experimentally why, and if external physical conditions could improve the growth. He found that a DC

Direct current

Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...

 current through the broken bone (about 1 nanoampere) would greatly improve the growth and fusion of the bones. During this work, Becker found it significant that lower animals had much better regeneration

Regeneration (biology)

In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organs, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans. At its most...

 capabilities: Salamander

Salamander

Salamander is a common name of approximately 500 species of amphibians. They are typically characterized by a superficially lizard-like appearance, with their slender bodies, short noses, and long tails. All known fossils and extinct species fall under the order Caudata, while sometimes the extant...

s could regrow lost limbs, while frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...

s seemed to be a little too high on the evolutionary ladder to achieve this regeneration. He studied these animals for years in order to find out why evolution caused impaired regeneration capabilities, and whether electric field

Electric field

In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding...

s or currents could stimulate regeneration. His experiments and theorizing could be regarded as a continuation of the similar work of Harold Saxton Burr

Harold Saxton Burr

Harold Saxton Burr was E. K. Hunt Professor of Anatomy at Yale University School of Medicine. His early years were spent in Springfield, Massachusetts, while most of his later life was spent in New Haven. In 1908 he was admitted to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale and received his Ph.B. in...

. Becker thought, like Burr, that some sort of field

Field (physics)

In physics, a field is a physical quantity associated with each point of spacetime. A field can be classified as a scalar field, a vector field, a spinor field, or a tensor field according to whether the value of the field at each point is a scalar, a vector, a spinor or, more generally, a tensor,...

 encompassed the body, governing and stimulating regeneration. He found that an electrostatic field, positive away from the limb stump, could enable regeneration of a frog limb.

Published works

Books

• Electromagnetism and Life. State University of New York Press, Albany 1982, ISBN 0-87395-560-9
• The Body Electric
  The Body Electric
  The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life is a book by Robert O. Becker and Gary Selden in which Becker, an orthopedic surgeon at the time working for the Veterans Administration, describes his research into "our bioelectric selves"....
  
  . Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life (with Gary Selden). Morrow, New York 1985, ISBN 0-688-06971-1
• Cross Currents. The Promise of Electromedicine, the Perils of Electropollution. Torcher, Los Angeles 1990, ISBN 0-87477-536-1)

As publisher

• Mechanisms of Growth Control, edited by Robert O. Becker. Thomas, Springfield 1981, ISBN 0-398-04469-4

Selected papers

• Search for Evidence of Axial Current Flow in Peripheral Nerves of Salamander. Becker RO. Science. 14 July 1961;134(3472):101-2.
• Longitudinal direct-current gradients of spinal nerves. BECKER RO, BACHMAN CH, SLAUGHTER WH. Nature. 17 November 1962;196:675-6.
• Electron paramagnetic resonance in non-irradiated bone. BECKER RO. Nature. 28 September 1963;199:1304-5.
• Photoelectric effects in human bone. Becker RO, Brown FM. Nature. 26 June 1965;206(991):1325-8.
• Electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of bone and its major components. Becker RO, Marino AA. Nature. 7 May 1966;210(5036):583-8.
• The electrical control of growth processes. Becker RO. Med Times. 1967 Jun;95(6):657-69.
• Stimulation of partial limb regeneration in rats. Becker RO. Nature. 14 January 1972;235(5333):109-11.
• Augmentation of regenerative healing in man. A possible alternative to prosthetic implantation. Becker RO. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1972 Mar-Apr;83:255-62.
• Regeneration of the ventricular myocardium in amphibians. Becker RO, Chapin S, Sherry R. Nature. 8 March 1974;248(444):145-7.
• The current status of electrically stimulated bone growth. Becker RO. ONA J. 1975 Feb;2(2):35-6