Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026 · about a 5-minute read
Good morning. Yesterday we asked what an undo button for plastic surgery would take. Today we walk through the rest of the surgeon's office, room by room, and find most of the tools being rebuilt to grow the body's own tissue instead of adding something foreign to it.
The big one
The Plastic Surgeon's Office Is Being Reassembled, Starting With the Face. Our eighth Some Assembly Required follows the work from face to body. A cream aimed at aging "zombie" cells lowered skin's biological age in a small company test, and the FDA has cleared a 75-person trial of a shot meant to regrow lost tissue under the eyes. Next come dissolving 3D-printed scaffolds that fill with a woman's own fat, already in a final-stage trial.
Why it matters: cosmetic medicine could move from implants and fillers to treatments that rebuild people's own tissue. Our odds on the whole machine, drug or cell treatments that reshape the face and body with no permanent implants: chance it works 50%, likely by 2042. Read it →
Yesterday on the site
Thinking Machines
Power Bills Were on the Ballot. Voters Just Rewrote the Rules for Data Centers.: our free breakdown of the 41 local votes on data centers and the races that set power rules, and what they mean for power bills and the AI race.
The End of Aging
Immune 'Bouncers' Could Clear Aging's Zombie Cells: a company says the first patient got a peptide meant to help the immune system clear worn-out cells (company claim).
The End of Disease
Cancer Treatments Could Be Test-Driven on a Copy of the Tumor First: computer copies of 31 breast tumors matched real treatment results 74% of the time, looking back.
A Gene Editor Could Cut ALS Out at Its Root: a company says its editor erased the repeated DNA behind one inherited form of ALS in patient cells (company claim).
An Aspirin and an Antacid Could Help Prevent Premature Birth, an AI Predicts: an AI immune twin ranked the pair about 15 times better than aspirin alone, in simulation.
About Half of Transplanted Fat Fades. An Old Diabetes Drug Just Grew New Fat in Mice: a skin cream added fat cells in radiation-damaged mouse skin.
3D-Printed Erectile Tissue Is Repairing Injured Pigs, a Step Toward Rebuilding Injured Men: printed tissue nearly fully regrew damaged tissue in pigs, and a small human safety trial is registered.
Superhuman
Plastic Surgery May Get an Undo Button. Its Parts Are Still in the Lab.: yesterday's Some Assembly Required.
A Breast Implant Built to Vanish, Leaving Women's Own Tissue, Is in Its Final Trial: a scaffold filled with a woman's own fat, then absorbed, kept 83% of its volume in 19 women (company-reported).
Chips That Could Help Blind People See Again Just Got $70 Million: a retinal implant maker raised about $70 million, with three people implanted.
Robots & Self-Driving
Humanoid Coworkers May Be Clocking In at Warehouses Soon: 30-plus companies are weighing one walking warehouse robot, per a secondary report.
Air Taxis Could Soon Hop Between Florida Airports: a piloted electric air taxi flew to Tampa, Orlando and Kennedy Space Center.
To the Stars
A Year Sealed Inside Fake Mars Could Help Future Crews Live Better: four volunteers walked out of NASA's 3D-printed Mars habitat after 378 days.
A Country With a Moon on Its Flag Could Head for the Real One: Turkey booked a SpaceX launch for its first Moon orbiter in 2027.
Limitless Energy
Lasers Could Someday Power Cities With Fusion: a Nobel winner's fusion start-up raised $34 million (company claim).
By the numbers
41: local data center measures on Tuesday's ballots, in about 10 states, by Ballotpedia's count.
74%: how often computer copies of breast tumors matched real treatment results, looking back at 31 patients.
378 days: how long four volunteers lived sealed inside NASA's pretend Mars base.
New on the odds board
Yesterday's posts put fresh odds on a federal law making big data centers pay for their own grid upgrades, tumor twins calling treatment results in advance, a gene edit for inherited ALS, a fusion power plant driven by lasers, humanoid robots in warehouses, a two-drug combination against premature birth, air taxis between Florida airports, Turkey's first Moon orbiter and a retinal implant that restores sight. Every milestone lives on the calculator.
On the calendar
Nov. 5: Tesla's Cybercab opens a 12-stop display tour of Europe at Autoshow Zürich.
Nov. 7 to 8: NASA's quiet supersonic X-59 appears at the MAX POWER show at Kennedy Space Center.
No earlier than Nov. 12: SpaceX's first try at catching both Starship stages with the launch tower, per a reported air-traffic slide.
Nov. 16 to 19: the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease conference in Boston.
December: the regional grid operator PJM's next auction for future power supply, the market where data center demand has pushed prices to the cap.
The story we're following
Power bills and data centers: on Tuesday, voters in dozens of towns told the AI build-out to pay its own way and bring its own power. This morning, two small reactors that could power a neighborhood stand one review away from switching on. The fight over who pays for the power AI needs is now as big a story as the AI itself.
Quote of the day
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." — Arthur C. Clarke, in his 1962 book Profiles of the Future. Regrowing a nose, a breast or a face from a person's own cells sat firmly on the impossible side of that line not long ago.
Coming up
Today: China's plan to put people on the Moon before 2030 at 9 a.m., an Alzheimer's protein halved by reopening the liver's filters at 10, robotaxis that learn in virtual worlds at 11, and at noon, our new calculator that puts an age on every breakthrough. Later: twin Mars probes slingshot past Earth at 4 p.m., and Voyager 1 nears a full light-day from home at 5. Friday's big one: Space Is Getting Gas Stations, Tow Trucks and Robot Repair Crews.
Until next time
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