- A pre-print claiming “round-robin attention” during visual competition was greeted with skepticism: “The rhythm of attentional stimulus selection during visual competition” (bioRxiv, 2017).  
- Recent open-access papers were circulated, including an in-vitro 3-D-printed vascular chip for organ-on-chip work, syringe-injectable mesh electronics for neural recording, and the discovery that ~50 % of platelets are produced in the lungs (“The lung is a site of platelet biogenesis…”, Nature 2017).  
- A Nature Microbiology review on “On the origin of capsids” and another on the in-situ architecture of the bacterial Type-III secretion system were highlighted as key reading for synthetic-biology chassis design.  
- DIY bio troubleshooting: a home-built electroporator failed after over-voltage testing (likely shorted MOSFETs); the user extracted GFP plasmid and plans to build a laser-cut gel-electrophoresis rig to verify the prep while awaiting replacement parts.  
- Neuralink (Elon Musk) and Kernel (Bryan Johnson, Ted Berger) were discussed as new, well-funded ventures aiming for high-bandwidth brain–computer interfaces to keep humans competitive with AI.  
- The nootropic RGPU-95 (p-Cl-phenylpiracetam), claimed to be 5–10× more potent than phenylpiracetam, was linked from NewMind, prompting curiosity about subjective effects.  
- iGEM 2017 reminders: team-registration deadline March 31 (late fee +$500) and a call for judge applications offering 50 % Jamboree discounts for qualified academics.  
- Additional resources shared: USC course “BME 552: Neural Implant Engineering,” MIT Press book “Toward Replacement Parts for the Brain,” and a curated list of 2016 Python bioinformatics tools (PLOS Comp. Biol.).