• A stereolithography route for dense silicon-oxycarbide ceramics was described: a pre-ceramic polymer resin (mercaptopropyl-methylsiloxane + vinylmethoxysiloxane) is photopolymerized and then pyrolyzed at 1000 °C in argon, yielding SiOC parts with 42 % mass loss and 30 % linear shrinkage without any sintering step.

• Sandia National Labs’ “Robocasting” technique extrudes ceramic slurry through a sponge to 3-D-print complex ceramic structures without support material, while Argentina’s abandonment of its dollar peg was debated as a potential setback for one of Bitcoin’s largest real-world user bases.

• Roughly 900 GB of Springer books (~100 000 titles) were captured during a brief accidental open-access release and are circulating privately; Sci-Hub simultaneously regained its original domain, intensifying discussions on open access to scientific literature.

• Vacuum-system fundamentals were reviewed: diffusion pumps (oil or mercury) rely on vapor condensation to block back-streaming and reach 10⁻⁷–10⁻¹⁰ mbar, whereas ion-getter pumps use high-voltage plates to ionize and chemically trap residual gas; modern SEM/TEM systems favor turbo or ion-getter pumps over diffusion pumps.

• DIY SEM refurbishment was detailed: replacing caster wheels on a 30-year-old system revealed a 70–80 lb roughing + diffusion pump stack, illustrating the practical challenges of maintaining legacy electron-microscopy hardware.

• Forward-model theories of cortical expansion were linked, arguing that enhanced cerebellar “innerveating” circuits provide predictive control over neocortical processing via cerebro-cerebellar loops and basal-ganglia selection dynamics.

• An automated protein-design toolchain was proposed that frames the problem as a fitness-function-driven computational search, with a secondary goal of applying the same framework to DNA information-loss repair.

• Off-label use of the withdrawn CB1 inverse agonist rimonabant was debated as a cognitive enhancer despite its association with severe depression and suicidality, highlighting tensions between incremental self-experimentation and high-risk grand-challenge approaches.

• A nanofabrication route using drawn glass-fiber preforms was outlined: cross-sectional features shrink to ~1 µm (or below) via surface-tension-limited drawing, followed by selective chemical etching of sacrificial glass to achieve nanometer-scale structures, though precise etchant placement remains a practical hurdle.

• Community-built open-hardware tools were showcased, including a hybrid laser-cutter/3-D printer (photo: http://faikvm.com/20160102_184234.jpg) and a GitHub script (https://github.com/mbuesch/cnc/blob/master/tools/brlcad2gcode.sh) for converting BRL-CAD models to G-code, with skepticism noted toward fully automated tool-path generation without material- and machine-specific optimization.