- Participants proposed a provocative re-framing of non-DNA-damage cancers as mis-regulated organoids rather than conventional tumors, citing teratomas’ ability to form structured tissues and embryonic-like surface proteins that could explain immune evasion.

- A debate unfolded around the cancer stem-cell theory, with links to the Ludwig Center and Wikipedia pages contrasting the view that only rare “cancer stem cells” propagate tumors against the idea that all cancer cells are effectively stem-like.

- The channel explored open-source mass spectrometry, examining designs for an inexpensive, portable MS that avoids costly turbomolecular pumps, and participants retrieved and mirrored a hand-held tandem-MS paper (DOI 10.1007/s13361-014-0946-z) at fennetic.net/irc/ac801275x.pdf.

- The Kasthuri15 dataset release was announced: a saturated mouse neocortex reconstruction of 2,250 ultrathin sections yielding a fully annotated 0.13 mm³ volume with 1,700 synapses, hosted at openconnectome.org/catmaid/ and notable for refuting Peters’ rule.

- Recent synthetic-biology advances were reviewed, including engineered gut microbes that secrete therapeutics or sense cancer/inflammation signals in vivo, as reported in Cell Systems 2015.

- Yuri Milner’s $100 million pledge to SETI—a 2000 % budget increase—prompted discussion of renewed Allen Telescope Array use and the “starivore” binary-star hypothesis paper.

- A DIY tissue-culture anecdote described a spontaneously beating cardiac-muscle sheet that emerged from chicken-embryo explants left in vitro, illustrating the self-organizing potential of cardiac cells.

- Transmissible cancers were highlighted through links to canine venereal tumor and other clonally transmissible cancers, presented as rare exceptions to the rule that cancer is non-contagious.

- Decellularized-organ scaffolds were compared, contrasting published “ghost heart” images with droopy lab-scale versions, and noting the need for vascularization to scale organoids beyond pea size.