• A Houston-area DIYbio lab (TX/RX) has acquired −80 °C freezers, ultracentrifuges, cell counters and peristaltic pumps for <$2 k from medical-equipment auctions, and the surplus culture in Houston is described as a steady source of high-end gear at scrap-metal prices.

• The channel is prototyping “Serylar,” a spider-silk fiber produced in engineered yeast, and is experimenting with ultra-cheap yeast nutrients, body-building protein powders, and 300 kDa spidroin purification; Gibson Assembly (T5 exonuclease + polymerase + Taq ligase at 50 °C) is being studied for DNA construction.

• An open-source laser micro-machining platform is being designed to cut 1 µm features in PDMS and acrylic for microfluidics; the current BOM is ≈ $2.9 k, with debates over 198 nm XY resolution via 1/16 micro-stepping, CO₂ vs. NIR diode sources, and LinuxCNC vs. FPGA motion control.

• A companion DIY spin-coater (500–5 k RPM, computer-controlled ramp, balanced chuck, fume-hood integration) and a <$2 k laser cutter are under parallel development to support home IC and microfluidic fabrication.

• Home CMOS fabrication efforts (http://code.google.com/p/homecmos) aim to replicate older ICs at the transistor level, with plans to build an open-source toolchain that converts microscope images of delayered chips into SPICE netlists, motivated by ARM’s patent restrictions on open-source cores.

• Synthetic Genomics (Craig Venter) has scheduled a “courting” call with channel members to explore collaboration, and a San Diego–based participant is on standby for an in-person presentation if the discussion progresses.

• Urban-armor concepts include modular, lace-up garments with Cordura or wool panels, removable thermal linings, and hidden neoprene kneepads; the tactical-corset (http://www.tacticalcorsets.com) is cited as prior art for load-bearing clothing.

• Long-term yeast storage best practices were discussed: −80 °C lab freezers (two-stage Freon/CO₂ cascade) are strongly preferred over −20 °C consumer units, and surplus dewar flasks for liquid-nitrogen storage are available but require careful vacuum inspection to avoid explosion hazards.

• Halcyon Molecular is reportedly liquidating semiconductor and biology tools as the company splits, with no public inventory yet; participants also bragged about surplus scores including a 6-axis Puma robot arm for $200 and a 30 W laser cutter for $600.

• OCR of academic PDFs for citation-graph extraction remains poor; suggested fixes include pdftk text-layer extraction, custom dictionary post-correction, and leveraging known journal abbreviations to improve accuracy.