- A microfluidic spiral-filter device—originally expected to work only under laminar flow—appears to concentrate algae even when operated at Reynolds numbers far above the laminar regime; absorbance at 680 nm rises monotonically with successive passes, but the team has not yet measured the depletion in the waste stream to confirm true separation.  
- To exploit the unexpected performance, a directed-evolution scheme is proposed: repeatedly harvest the “enriched” output, culture it, and re-run the filter, thereby selecting algal strains that are intrinsically easier to separate.  
- ImageJ is being used to automate cell counting from microscope images, replacing tedious manual counts and demonstrating the value of open-source image-analysis tools in DIY biology workflows.  
- Discussion of synthetic nucleic-acid chemistry centered on “ligandosides” (nucleoside mimics) and the Kool lab’s work on non-natural bases; participants brainstormed light-switchable polymerase-blocking molecules and in-vitro compartmentalization to evolve polymerases that accept artificial nucleotides.  
- A Nature News post about RNA-based counters inside living cells sparked debate on noise tolerance, with suggestions that Gray-coded or ternary encodings might be more robust than binary for intracellular state machines.  
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was highlighted as a non-invasive, portable way to monitor pilot cognitive load via cortical blood-flow and oxygenation, potentially preventing “brain overload” in high-stress environments.  
- HeeksCAD was successfully scripted in Python to generate mechanical parts, validating the open-source CAD tool for future hardware prototyping.  
- Conversations touched on the practicality of space-based currencies, with proposals ranging from radiation-hardened RFID tokens to mechanically patterned “space coins” that could function in zero-g without centralized validation.