• A new open-source wet-lab protocol repository, cathalgarvey/biohacking-protocols, was launched and mirrored at diyhpl.us, offering explicit, low-overhead protocols in Markdown for DIY biohackers.  
• Benchling was debated as a “GitHub of Biology,” with skepticism about whether it truly uses Git under the hood for plasmid maps, primer design, and in-browser BLAST.  
• Hive76’s Chris Thompson is building an open-source Lasersaur laser cutter; BOM links show a 100 W CO₂ tube costs ≈ £1 k, though cheaper Chinese alternatives exist.  
• Participants criticized MatLab for poor performance and GUI lag, advocating migration to Python or Python wrappers to escape the MatLab interface.  
• A user reported immediate calm, focus, and confidence from a Noopept + citicoline + alpha-GPC nootropic stack and shared links to the #reddit-nootropics IRC channel.  
• A 500-element phased-array ultrasound system was highlighted for non-invasive deep-brain stimulation, demonstrated in rabbit brains through human skulls (paper linked).  
• Optical neural control via engineered light-gated ion channels (Anselm Levskaya 2009 Nature paper) was reviewed, noting that skull windows or implants are still required because visible/IR light does not penetrate bone.  
• Early “mind-reading” video reconstruction was traced to a 1999 cat LGN study using a 7-fiber electrode array sampling ~177 cells, alongside a 2011 human fMRI visual-decoding paper showing continued progress.  
• Radical-pair biochemistry was proposed as a mechanism for weak RF magnetic-field effects on biology, with a linked review on quantitative RF–biomolecule interactions.  
• The group debated the value of bypassing sensory organs for direct brain I/O, citing existing high-bandwidth channels like the eyes and noting the absence of natural GHz-range EM receptors, while emphasizing practical bottlenecks in current neural interfaces.