• Neurokernel, an open-source Columbia University project, aims to emulate the entire fruit-fly brain and was re-shared as a reference for whole-brain emulation efforts.  
• A feasibility debate on DIY mass spectrometry highlighted Brian Hemond’s MIT thesis on miniature low-cost MS and a Purdue handheld melamine detector, while participants listed practical barriers—ultra-high vacuum pumps, liquid-nitrogen cooling, precise ion optics, and ESI/MALDI sample introduction—and proposed salvage (old quadrupoles, SEM/FIB columns) and MEMS-scale ion-trap strategies to reduce cost.  
• nmz787’s open-source optical spectrometer (GitHub) was noted as an accessible spectrophotometer, and simpler impedance-based particle analyzers such as Coulter counters and microfluidic cell counters (e.g., Millipore Scepter) were discussed, with the Analog Devices AD5933 impedance analyzer chip cited as an off-the-shelf component for DIY builds.  
• nickjohnson’s successfully-Kickstarter-funded “Tsunami” phase-detection board—a $25–$30 Arduino-compatible tool using a GreenPAK programmable logic device to measure phase shift and frequency up to ~4 MHz—was showcased for impedance and frequency-response analysis.  
• Practical low-cost electronics fabrication tips included $20 eBay hot-air stations for QFN soldering, solder-paste stencils from dirtypcb, the Voltera desktop PCB prototyping machine, and the Tindie “Paste-Press” solder-paste dispenser, with suggestions that both could be 3-D-printed or shared at makerspaces.  
• A salvaged triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer teardown was documented (photographed in a bathtub), with advice to retain the stainless vacuum chamber and resell turbomolecular pumps and controllers to fund rebuilds.  
• The channel’s paperbot successfully delivered paywalled articles, including a Science paper on lentiviral gene therapy for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, after an initial request for a 2000 Thieme nootropics paper failed.  
• LaBean Research Group (NC State) was introduced via a personal connection; their work on DNA-templated metal nanostructures and DNA-based cryptographic one-time pads was discussed, with links to a Springer chapter and a PDF on molecular computing.