Recently the actor Denise Richards shared several photos of her bare face that triggered a wave of double takes. In some, her side profile reflects the gentle weathering expected of nearly 55 well-lived years; in others, her face rewinds to how it looked during her Bond-girl era. It was as if, as one fan put it, she'd acquired a time machine. But nobody needed to guess how she transformed: She also posted an image from the morning of her facelift. In it, ink markings peppered her features, illustrating exactly where a surgeon would soon cut her skin open. Richards didn't just cop to cosmetic surgery. She shared who did it, how she prepared, what recovery felt like, and'perhaps most surprising'what it looked like, via post-op photos at two days, five days, eight days, 10 days, and 3.5 weeks: A bandage swaddled the former model's face in one, and purple bruises bloomed atop her cheeks; a handful of tiny, stitched scalpel cuts on the corners of her mouth and eyelids still looked fresh. Her goal, she told the beauty magazine Allure, had been to 'put things back up, where they were before,' adding that the procedures boosted her confidence and made her 'feel good.' Predictably, the photos went viral; fans applauded Richards's honesty. 'Bless her,' wrote one commenter, 'for showing us that she did this instead of pretending it's olive oil and yoga.'...

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 4 March 2026...

What if clinicians could place tiny electronic chips in the brain that electrically stimulate a precise target, through a simple injection in the arm' This may someday help treat deadly or debilitating brain diseases, while eliminating surgery-related risks and costs. MIT researchers have taken a major step toward making this scenario a reality. They developed microscopic, wireless bioelectronics that could travel through the body's circulatory system and autonomously self-implant in a target region of the brain, where they would provide focused treatment. In a study on mice, the researchers show that after injection, these miniscule implants can identify and travel to a specific brain region without the need for human guidance. Once there, they can be wirelessly powered to provide electrical stimulation to the precise area. Such stimulation, known as neuromodulation, has shown promise as a way to treat brain tumors and diseases like Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. Moreover, because the electronic devices are integrated with living, biological cells before being injected, they are not attacked by the body's immune system and can cross the blood-brain barrier while leaving it intact. This maintains the barrier's crucial protection of the brain....

Inspired by the world's largest land animal, researchers have created and tested what they say is the world's smallest 3D bioprinter. The device ' which sports a 2.7-millimetre-wide printhead at the end of a long, flexible arm that moves like an elephant's trunk ' might one day assist physicians by delivering healing hydrogels after surgery. In a report published on 29 October in the journal Device1, the researchers proved that the device could be fed through a physician's surgical scope to deposit hydrogel onto an artificial set of vocal cords. 'This is the first time I've seen a bioprinter that's applicable to vocal folds,' says Ibrahim Ozbolat, a biomedical engineer at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. 'Bioprinting typically addresses skin defects from the outside. Reaching a defect internally has been a challenge in the field.' After undergoing surgery to remove cysts or growths from their vocal cords, people sometimes have difficulty speaking because their vocal folds scar and become stiff. Studies have shown that injecting hydrogels ' which can be shaped to mimic the vocal cords' natural structure and support new tissue as it grows ' boosts the healing process2. But surgeons have had a hard time delivering the biomaterials with precision because their view into the throat is limited....