- A participant proposed using the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis as a compact, 20 000-neuron model organism for neuro-interface experiments because it is easy to culture, has large identifiable neurons, and its central ring ganglia fit under a 1 mm scale bar.  
- Home-built cloud-chamber projects were discussed; builders reported that 400 W Peltier stacks driven by surplus 50 A server PSUs (£17 on eBay) still struggled to reach the ~60 °C differential needed for vapor-trail visibility, and better heatsinks or water-cooling loops were advised.  
- A DIY “zymeter” for real-time beer fermentation monitoring was refined: ultrasound (2 MHz transducer + 100 MHz ADC sampled by FPGA) is being tested to read specific gravity through foam, replacing earlier bubbler-based probes that were confused by yeast-generated CO₂.  
- Arduino IDE support for the ultra-low-cost ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC was announced on Hackaday, potentially turning the $3 module into the default wireless backbone for open-source bio-sensor networks.  
- Exploit-exercises.com was shared as a free, self-contained set of virtual machines and CTF-style challenges for learning practical security skills relevant to medical-device and lab-automation firmware.  
- A brief but pointed observation noted that U.S. senators cannot distinguish between the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, causing confusion when both groups lobby on opposite sides of prescriptive authority for psychologists.