- Vitamin-D deficiency is described as the most clinically significant micronutrient gap in the U.S.; current lab ranges are considered inaccurate, and one participant reports 18 months without colds while taking high-dose supplementation.  
- The complete synaptic-level connectome of the C. elegans male mating circuit—144 neurons, 64 muscles, ~8,000 synapses—was published in Science and is mirrored at http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/neuro/The%20connectome%20of%20a%20decision-making%20neural%20network%20in%20C.%20elegans%20reconstructed%20from%20serial%20electron%20micrograph%20sections%20-%202012.pdf.  
- A Russian open-source PCR thermocycler design is available at http://geneticlab.h19.ru/pribor/pcramp.php, offering a low-cost path to DNA amplification for DIY labs.  
- The NIH is funding a $70 million, five-year “tissue-chip” program to create micro-physiological culture systems for high-throughput drug screening.  
- Participants compared Linux-compatible high-end laptops (Lenovo W701/W701ds, HP EliteBook 8760w, Dell Precision M6600), emphasizing i7 CPUs, ≥8 GB RAM, 17-inch screens, and the Atheros ath9k Wi-Fi chipset for open-source driver stability.  
- Mechanical keyboard durability was debated: 20–50 million keystroke ratings were judged inadequate for heavy typists, prompting discussion of rigorous kinetic stress testing and possible open-hardware keyboard projects.  
- Disco (discoproject.org), an Erlang/Python MapReduce framework, was praised as a powerful tool for large-scale distributed data processing.  
- An antimatter starship concept using Schwinger pair production for power was linked, with back-of-the-envelope calculations on the acceleration achievable by a 4×10⁷ hp engine pushing a 5×10⁵-ton vessel.