- A paper on “Patterning Design in Color at the Sub-micron Scale” was discussed; it shows how pressing a CD into a Sharpie-ink film can create microfluidic channels with 0.2 µm resolution, and participants debated whether burned CDs could also serve as cheap photomasks for lithography.  
- Gene outlined a dorm-room electro-etching experiment using a computer power-supply, salt water, Tupperware, aluminum, stainless steel, and paint to fabricate microfluidic devices.  
- Kanzure_ posted links to the Sussex Synaesthesia Research Group (http://www.syn.sussex.ac.uk/) and SNPedia’s HTR2A page, highlighting evidence that the serotonin-receptor gene HTR2A on chromosome 13q may underlie synaesthesia and that SSRIs like Prozac can suppress it.  
- A brief exchange on open-source OCR tools noted that Tesseract, GOCR, and Ocropus all “suck,” with bkero seeking better options for Japanese kana recognition.  
- Participants observed that Ubuntu’s easy live-CD install has noticeably increased the availability of Linux binaries and developer support for random projects.  
- The channel’s broader focus was described as “transhuman technologies” and “open manufacturing,” including DIYbio, home DNA synthesis, and the goal of an open-source DNA synthesizer that could let anyone “download and compile” genes such as insulin.