Want to smooth out your wrinkles, erase scars and sunspots, and look years younger? Millions of Americans a year turn to lasers and prescription drugs to rejuvenate their skin, but exactly how that rejuvenation works has never been fully explained. Now, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that laser treatments and the drug retinoic acid share a common molecular pathway. Moreover, that pathway — which lets skin cells sense loose RNA molecules — is also turned up in mice when they regenerate hair follicles. Results are described in the June 26 issue of Nature Communications.