- A $1,500 digital-maskless photolithography system (sedgwick3d.com) was showcased as a rapid, mask-free route to fabricate microfluidic devices in under 20 minutes, eliminating the traditional mask-making bottleneck.  
- Open-access microfluidics literature was shared, including a paper on “Simple, robust storage of drops and fluids in a microfluidic device” and two LCD-based optoelectrowetting studies that enable light-driven droplet manipulation.  
- DIY electroporation for yeast transformation was detailed with specific parameters (1.5 kV, 25 µF, 200 Ω, 0.2 cm cuvette) and suggestions for ultra-low-cost high-voltage sources such as piezo sparkers or Cockcroft-Walton multipliers.  
- Addgene.org’s policy of shipping GFP-expressing yeast plasmids only to academic/non-profit addresses sparked discussion about alternative plasmid suppliers accessible to hobbyist biohackers.  
- A proposal for an open-source “pirate” replacement for Agilent’s Bioanalyzer emerged as a low-cost quality-control tool for next-generation sequencing library preparation.  
- Surplus lab-equipment bargains were highlighted on the auction site slapsale.com, with fluorescence-microscopy lots (items 63601, 63705) identified as potential low-cost acquisitions for DIY biology labs.  
- Practical microfluidic imaging guidance emphasized the necessity of inverted microscopes (to accommodate upward-facing plumbing and thin PDMS layers) and dismissed side-port manifolds as incompatible with standard chip geometry.  
- Simple pressure-generation techniques for microchannels were compared: regulated gas lines delivering 5–10 psi versus a gravity-driven rail system requiring a 10-foot elevation to achieve ~5 psi, with caution to balance inlet/outlet heights to avoid artifacts.  
- A 4 TB partial mirror of Library Genesis (≈15 % downloaded) is being maintained despite network disruptions, including router resets and suspected rogue DHCP servers, underscoring ongoing efforts to preserve open-access scientific literature.