- A laser-based “LysoSENS” proposal was discussed: pulsed lasers tuned to lipofuscin’s absorbance peak can selectively destroy the age-pigment in retinal pigment epithelial cells; early ophthalmology trials already show rejuvenation of aged RPE tissue, but the ~1-inch tissue penetration depth raises delivery challenges for internal organs.

- Participants compared personal experiences with stimulants for productivity: Adderall XR (d-amphetamine) and modafinil were highlighted as low-side-effect “anti-boredom” agents, with ybit reporting dramatic increases in task completion and life changes when using modafinil.

- The N-Prize (http://www.n-prize.com/) was highlighted—a tongue-in-cheek orbital-launch challenge that limits payload to 20 g and budget to “ludicrously small,” prompting discussion of whether such micro-prizes can meaningfully steer innovation.

- A concept for an end-to-end open-source rocketry platform was sketched: Google-Maps-style backend + mindat.org mining-supply data → automated procurement → mail-order parts → distributed assembly tasks à la BitTorrent swarming, all wrapped in “web 2.0” collaboration tools.

- Long-tail citizen-science kits for anti-aging research were proposed: $500 modular biochem kits that let bloggers or hobbyists run permutation tests, with work partitioned algorithmically so projects can survive even if central labs “fizzle out.”

- DIYbio hardware discussion: maradydd in #diybio wants simple, solder-and-forget controller logic for an electroporator instead of a software-only solution.

- Open-source digitizing workflow: participants compared 5 MP cameras, OCR (Google’s Tesseract-based tools, Adobe’s 2002-2003 engine), and the A51 open-hardware book scanner; ybit’s workflow is “borrow → scan → print → bind” for comfortable long-form reading, with e-ink readers (Plastic Logic, OLPC) as possible replacements.

- Frustration with MatWeb’s anti-scraping scheme was detailed: session-state hashes (32-hex-char strings) that change with page-size parameters, 200-result hard limit, and inability to replay captured POST requests via wget—seen as obstacles to bulk materials-data liberation.