Minimally invasive surgery could become much more effective if surgeons had laparoscope that could be made to flex in different directions, which they cannot do today. To answer this need, engineers at Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy) have built an accordion type fixture that inflates to turn, and then becomes stiff when a vacuum is applied to a membrane containing a granular material inside the scope. It is commonly assumed in hospitals that any procedure which can be performed with minimal invasion will be done that way (implying a shift from inpatient to outpatient operations). MORE