• Home biochemistry labs operate in a regulatory gray zone—local health and building departments defer to national agencies—so keeping a detailed experimental log is the de-facto safety standard.  
• A single-step aptamer-affinity magnetic-bead protocol was shared as a low-cost way to purify Taq DNA polymerase without chromatography columns, and a kitchen blender can be repurposed as a centrifuge for the separation steps.  
• The group compared AR marker-tracking (ARToolKit) against accelerometer-only “poor-man’s VR,” and brainstormed a symbolic, AR-friendly visual-programming notation inspired by the magic diagrams in the anime Dennō Coil.  
• Practical resources posted include OpenCASCADE/pythonOCC for CAD, Manasi Tamhankar’s zipped code on mechanical-part compatibility equations, and links to ScienceMadness and the Austin Biotechies meetup.  
• A Technology Review article on a bicycle-pump-driven microfluidic DNA-extraction straw, the Klapperich Lab’s open-wetware page, and a 2006 Analytical Chemistry paper on photopolymerized monoliths for on-chip nucleic-acid purification were circulated as open hardware references.  
• DIY lab builds discussed: a centrifuge made from e-bike motors and engine bearings, replication of Theodore Berger’s in-vivo multi-electrode arrays, and a hot-air soldering station for micro-electronics work.  
• SBaGen, a command-line binaural-beat generator, was introduced as a tool for brain-state modulation, accompanied by skepticism about its efficacy.  
• diysci.org was announced as a forthcoming hub to aggregate all open, web-based DIY research projects, with free Gentoo-based hosting and SSH accounts offered to support it.  
• Participants highlighted the absence of open licenses for scientific hardware and data—Science Commons covers literature but not schematics or patent-encumbered designs—and debated whether DIY status ends when work leaves the garage or receives sponsorship.