switch (around)

[ShirleyLing]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/sc...l-excerpt.html

Nazi scientists had severed Mrs. Goldblatt’s hands, switched them around, and sewn them on again so that if she put her hands out palms down, her thumbs were on the outside and her little fingers were on the inside.

The Great Salamander Crisis - New York Times

The next time I was at the lab I found the professor and told him that I thought I had switched the two bins.

How are "switch around" and "switch" different?

[SoothingDave]

In the examples you cite, there is no difference. Both are examples of being "switched around."

If things are "switched around," then A is where B should be and B is where A should be.

If something is "switched," then something else is where A should be. Like "we switched margarine for butter." Or something has changed, like "we switched trains in London" or "we switched brands of coffee that we buy."

[ShirleyLing]

Could I say:

Two babies were switched around.

when the babies were taken home with the wrong moms?

[SoothingDave]

Yes.