Our body’s are sealed up pretty tight, which is usually good but when something goes wrong on the inside fixing it means cutting you open. Surgeries are invasive, but thankfully new methods are minimizing their impact. Processes like single-site surgeries only require one small hole for access. And thanks to recent improvements in microchips and fiber optics we may soon be seeing more robots along side the operating table. For example, a team of surgeons at Columbia is working on a small robotic arm that can sneak into one 15-millimeter incision. These new approaches allow for smaller incisions, quicker recovery, fewer traumatic experiences and fewer side effects for the patient.