- A kitchen refrigerator was used to store a “Green Gene 4 Station Kit” for bacterial transformation, sparking debate on DIY-bio safety, cross-contamination risks, and the need for dedicated –60 °C Peltier-cooled lab storage.  
- Participants successfully ran ElmerFEM’s open-source finite-element GUI tutorials (TemperatureAngleGUI, RayleighBernardGUI) but crashed when editing .sif solver files, prompting links to the ElmerGUI manual and MIT’s “machine invention kit” notes.  
- Microfluidics prototyping tips: Whitesides screw-actuated valves, piranha-solution hydrophobic glass, clamped-slide channels, and four archived papers on surface-tension-confined devices, Marangoni actuation, rough-hydrophobic channels, and laser-controlled droplets.  
- A mirrored paper on “Microbeads display of proteins using emulsion PCR and cell-free protein synthesis” was added to the community library, alongside discussion of Valonia bubble-algae electrophysiology and 1986 German aquarium voltage-clamp data.  
- DNA sequencing by mass spectrometry was deemed impractical for the ~10⁻²³ g mass difference between nucleotides, yet the concept was documented on the community wiki under “Microfluidic DNA sequencing.”  
- A San Antonio factory owner offered paid work to retrofit a CNC table with open-source electronics, illustrating grassroots demand for open fabrication hardware.  
- Transgenic lettuce expressing miraculin (taste-modifying protein) was discussed as a consumer-grade sensory-hacking experiment, with ThinkGeek tablets offered for first-hand testing.