Wound repair is usually about fighting fire with fire – using sutures and staples that pull the skin together but that add more damage to the surrounding tissue in the process. But the job can be done without that additional damage using a silk and gold bandage sealed with a laser. What’s more, the approach may lower the risk of infection.

Kaushal Rege at Arizona State University and his colleagues developed a type of bandage that seals together wounds as effectively as sutures, but does not …