- Scientists have created synthetic lipid membranes that exhibit autonomous growth and division, mimicking living cells (PNAS paper linked: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/06/19/1506704112).  
- A 24-year-old woman was discovered to have lived without a cerebellum, prompting discussion on neural plasticity and the limits of human brain redundancy (New Scientist article).  
- DARPA and NASA interest in Mars terraforming was noted; the most recent official document found is the 2013 NASA report “Advanced-to-Revolutionary Space Technology Options—The Responsibly Imaginable” (PDF linked).  
- Channel members debated low-cost cognitive enhancement: micro-dosing LSD was proposed as a practical nootropic, while lysergamide analogues (LSA, LSD) were compared for safety and efficacy.  
- Sci-Hub’s role in dismantling paywalled academic literature was highlighted (TorrentFreak coverage), framed as accelerating open-source science and transhumanist research access.  
- Recent SpaceX launch failure (explosion just before second-stage ignition) was reported as a setback for low-cost orbital access.  
- A collection of recent microbiology and evolutionary papers was circulated, covering extreme genome reduction in symbiotic bacteria, microbial dormancy “seed banks,” and the experimental evolution of inter-species cooperation (Nature Reviews Microbiology, Journal of Evolutionary Biology).  
- TALEN-mediated knockout rats were noted as a newly accessible mammalian genetic model (Nature Biotechnology paper).