• A Hackaday project titled “The Human Connection – 1st Impression” couples MEMS ultrasonic microphones with an LPC4370 MCU and 80 MSPS ADC, aiming at low-cost BCI or x-ray spectroscopy; partial firmware is on GitHub (ehughes/hc-1).

• Participants explored repurposing $1 NIR PIN photodiodes to achieve ~120 eV energy-resolution gamma/x-ray spectroscopy, contrasting them with expensive SDD/SiLi detectors and outlining a data path that oversamples 80 MSPS ADC data in an external Spartan-6 FPGA to build pulse-height histograms streamed over USB/SD.

• Inkjet print-head electronics were dissected: each nozzle has an individually addressable piezo actuator (0–180 nozzles per channel, up to 8 channels) and the same piezos agitate ink; plans were sketched to capture ultrasonic firing signatures with 3 MHz-clocked MEMS PDM microphones and decode the stream to study timing while suppressing mechanical noise.

• MRI safety concerns were raised about implantable finger magnets, including the risk of magnets ripping out under high-field exposure and everyday ferromagnetic attraction hazards.

• A real-time endpoint detector for FIB milling was proposed: monitor PIXE-generated X-ray flux leaking through the milled hole—transmitted intensity rises as the sample thins—allowing automatic switching from coarse to fine ion-beam diameters and reducing redeposition.

• PCB-level signal-integrity practices for 80 MSPS links were discussed: <50 mil differential-pair skew, ferrite-bead filtering, and hierarchical bypassing with low-ESL caps at FPGA pins.

• Evolutionary loss of synthetic DNA in mammalian cell lines was attributed to selection against the construct; continuous antibiotic selection remains the standard workaround, with debate on whether GFP or membrane-anchored reporters could enable automated high-throughput screening.

• Community skepticism toward life-extension crowdfunding (LabCures, lifespan.io) emphasized backing teams over projects and questioned the efficacy of such campaigns.

• Low-cost open-hardware links shared included an $89 Raspberry-Pi–compatible Spartan-6 FPGA board and the LPC-Link-v2 dev board, with interest in recruiting an electronics apprentice to accelerate non-research builds.