• AspireAssist, a reversible outpatient bariatric device, installs a subcutaneous port that lets users aspirate ~30 % of recently eaten food 20 minutes post-meal without general anesthesia, offering a reversible alternative to permanent gastric surgery.

• An open-source, Arduino-controlled E. coli bioreactor is being designed with low-cost sensors: the team is evaluating dissolved-oxygen probes versus CO₂-differential inference, pH indicator dyes, and a $150 NDIR CO₂ module (SenseAir K-30) to keep total parts cost minimal.

• A bench-scale endotoxin-removal protocol for plasmid maxipreps was shared: sequential Triton X-100/-114 phase separations followed by ethanol column washes yield clinical-grade plasmids carrying optimized mammalian expression cassettes (enhanced promoters, synthetic introns) intended for myostatin-inhibition gene therapy.

• Productivity-weather correlations were debated; one controlled study found no immediate typing-speed improvement when subjects moved from 30 °C/70 %RH to 25 °C SET* across 30–70 %RH, challenging the notion that simple humidity reduction boosts cognition, while broader literature on “meteoropathy” and barometric-pressure effects was sought.

• Notable life-science startups surfaced from AngelList mining: Transcriptic (robotic cloud lab), Cambrian Genomics (laser-printed DNA), Benchling (biological data platform), EnChroma (spectral-filter glasses for color-blindness), LifeCradle (organ-transport system claiming 24-hour heart preservation), and Localized Therapeutics (light-inducible gene therapy).