- NEURON simulator summer course (San Diego, May 2012) was promoted as a 5-day intensive for building biologically-realistic neural networks, with installation guides for NEURON + Python shared.  
- Participants proposed creating a “nootropic simulation database” that would use small neuronal network models to predict nutraceutical effects on ion channels and receptors, noting the absence of any existing nootropicdb.  
- Evaluated three ion-channel kinetic databases—ChannelDB (Genesis XML), EPFL’s Channelpedia (ChannelML), and a FAU physical-model repository—while lamenting sparse or poorly-structured data.  
- A DIY brain-stimulation electrode build was demonstrated via YouTube, alongside discussion of CMU’s microfluidic prototyping lab and a Pittsburgh startup developing microfluidic diagnostics.  
- The Foresight Institute’s 2007 Nanotech Roadmap was revisited, focusing on remaining technical hurdles for atomically precise manufacturing, positioning atoms, and fabricating NanoEngineer-designed structures.  
- BRL-CAD, an open-source CAD suite sponsored by the U.S. Army, was introduced as a candidate tool for nanoengineering workflows.  
- A debate on Peter Thiel’s claim “nothing sells itself” used examples from water in a desert to Ebola-infected carcasses to argue that products occupy a continuum from effortless to impossible sales, citing Thiel’s CS183 lecture notes as the source.  
- Discussion emphasized that even high-tech successes like Palantir and SpaceX required deliberate, non-obvious sales efforts, and that founders should devote 25–33 % of their time to recruiting top talent despite the tension between product-market fit and fundraising.