• A stealth cryonics lab in Martinsried, Germany is quietly advancing vitrification research but deliberately avoids a public web presence to evade tabloid backlash; they urgently need Pt100 sensors rated to –200 °C and are calibrating thermologgers at –196 °C and 0 °C to refine cooling-rate measurements during cryopreservation.

• European DIYbio infrastructure is expanding: Munich’s new BioCurious-style lab co-founded by Eugen joins a growing network listed at http://diyhpl.us/wiki/diybio/groups, while a German startup is building an “instructables-style” hardware-plan platform that the community hopes will adopt SKDB, the open-source hardware package manager.

• Energy futures debated include molten-salt thorium reactors (noting that Oak Ridge’s 1960s experiment never demonstrated closed-fuel breeding), Fischer–Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons from CO₂ and hydrogen, and Cuba’s post-Soviet “oil cliff” experience as evidence that large-scale organic agriculture can maintain food security.

• Algae are repeatedly highlighted as the highest-calorie-per-acre crop, with practical discussion of pH 9–11 spirulina culture, flue-gas CO₂ enrichment, and urine/NOx nutrient recycling—yet participants agree that algae-to-biofuel schemes are thermodynamically inferior to photovoltaics.

• Wet-lab veterans emphasized biology’s high failure rates (ideal PCR ~90 %, real-world tissue samples <10 %) and the need for ultracentrifuges, structural proteins, and hands-on training, countering a software newcomer’s hope for a universal “anyone on the planet” liposome-grid protocol.