- The channel debated the calorie-counting paradigm for obesity, with jrayhawk arguing that inflammation—not calorie surplus—drives weight gain and citing a 5,000–6,000 kcal non-inflammatory diet that still produced weight loss in sedentary subjects (PMID 19209185).  
- Participants discussed immune-dysfunction links to autism and the experimental use of Trichuris suis (pig whipworm) as an anti-inflammatory probiotic therapy.  
- A longevity-focused archive (diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/longevity/) was highlighted, featuring orally delivered siRNA targeting macrophage Map4k4 to suppress systemic inflammation.  
- Plans emerged to preserve open-source biology documentation by hosting the dormant openwetware.org (≤2 TB) and translating the DIYbio FAQ into Chinese for Chinese DIY-bio outreach.  
- Public Lab’s DIY spectrometry kit was re-shared on Kickstarter, underscoring grassroots interest in open-source analytical hardware for biology and chemistry.  
- A magnetic-stirrer DIY project was noted as underway, with parts recently ordered.  
- Technical discussion clarified that the 16-LED ring controller is a rotary encoder (quadrature or grey-code), not a potentiometer, and that 4-position rotary switches are simpler for fixed settings.  
- Stripe’s “Capture the Flag” write-up was dissected: they used PhantomJS for headless-browser challenges, pre-allocated 1,000 UNIX users per VM, and employed mod_userdir for per-user routing.