• Ken Hayworth posted a detailed rebuttal to MIT Technology Review’s critique of brain preservation techniques, arguing for the scientific validity of chemical fixation and plastic embedding for long-term memory storage (http://www.brainpreservation.org/ken-hayworths-personal-response-to-mit-technology-review-article/).

• A new optogenetic tool, “OptoSTIM1,” was highlighted: a fusion of Arabidopsis cryptochrome-2 and mammalian STIM1 that allows blue-light–triggered opening of endogenous Ca²⁺ channels, achieving 5–10× larger calcium influx than prior methods, with in-vivo demonstrations now published in Nature Biotechnology (http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nbt.3350.html).

• Recent papers discussed include Science’s report on an activity-dependent transcriptional switch that tunes fast-spiking interneuron properties, and PLOS Biology’s study showing how a single amino-acid change in a ligand-gated ion channel can switch behavioral outputs in vivo.

• A practical interstellar propulsion concept was outlined: a hybrid laser/mirror architecture that uses large Fresnel lenses for efficient acceleration and pre-positioned reflective sails for rapid deceleration, extending the Landis lightsail model and potentially leaving detectable “SETI artifacts” en-route.

• Community lab updates: a departing researcher plans to pursue open-source oligo-ligase characterization and a yeast-expressed follistatin-Fc project, contingent on access to mouse facilities and salvaged lab equipment (e.g., repairing a sold-off FPLC system).

• Kickstarter hardware disappointments were aired, including the long-delayed Peachy Printer resin 3-D printer and the SCiO pocket spectrometer; participants concluded that optical-heterodyning tunable-laser spectrometers may soon eclipse these consumer devices.

• Stripe and Braintree payment-processing APIs were compared; Stripe natively supports Bitcoin, whereas Braintree requires additional Coinbase integration, influencing choices for crowdfunding or e-commerce in biohacking projects.

• The 2015 iGEM competition will, for the first time, provide official video recordings of team presentations, improving open access to synthetic-biology methods and results.