What: Fluorescence-Assisted Resection and Exploration, a new technique that makes cancerous tissue glow during surgery, one cell at a time
Where: Boston
Why: Of the 1.5 million cases of cancer diagnosed annually, nearly all of them require surgery.
Wow: Pinpoints the spread of cancer in seconds

Last March, a French surgical team proved that face transplants weren't just for Nic Cage and John Travolta. Then, in December, an American team successfully performed the first face transplant on this side of the Atlantic. And yesterday, we got our first look at the results.

Surgery dates back to Neolithic times, but some major advances have occurred in the last 20 years that have allowed for previously unthinkable procedures.

While many new techniques have been cool without being clinically relevant, PopSci spoke with with Jeffrey Matthews, the chairman of surgery at the University of Chicago Hospital, to look at some of the advances that have actually helped save lives. And as a bonus, we'll look back at some aspects of surgery that haven’t changed over the decades.

Surgery for an organ donor generally involves a lot of pain, long recovery, and scarring. Which is why doctors at Johns Hopkins Medical Center tried a new approach (literally!) last week; they removed a woman's kidney through her vagina. Strange as it may sound, the procedure is less invasive than traditional methods—and actually not so new.

For six years after a brutal beating, a 38-year-old man lay in a minimally conscious state, effectively unable to communicate. Then, with the permission of his family, a team of neuroscientists at New Yorkâ€Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation attempted a last-resort experimental treatment known as deep brain stimulation, or DBS. Using brain scans as a guide, they implanted tiny electrodes deep in the man´s head and wired them to a pacemaker-like device beneath his collarbone.