• A new paper, “Privacy-preserving genome-wide association study is practical” (eprint.iacr.org/2017/955), was shared; participants noted that its privacy guarantees rely on Intel SGX trusted-execution hardware, which drew skepticism about the practicality of the approach.

• Discussion of Sci-Hub’s ongoing domain seizures revealed that Sci-Hub’s official Twitter account is advising users to switch to DNS servers 80.82.77.83 and 80.82.77.84 to regain access, though some participants expressed reluctance to trust an unknown DNS provider.

• A pre-print on “Large Area Metalenses: Design, Characterization, and Mass Manufacturing” (arXiv:1711.07158) was highlighted; the lenses now reach centimeter-scale diameters, matching an earlier open-source photomask-generation script posted to the channel a year earlier.

• Bitfury and Insilico Medicine announced a joint “longevity project” combining blockchain and AI; the only public information so far is a press-release-style PDF and a nine-hour Singularity University livestream, leaving actual technical details unclear.

• Lightning Network deployment timelines were debated: maaku emphasized that the protocol is already usable today and that channels remain open indefinitely, only closing when funds are needed elsewhere, countering concerns about daily on-chain fees.

• A brainstorming session on eliminating hangovers considered genetic interventions (e.g., disabling vasopressin suppression to prevent dehydration), biosensor tattoos that monitor hydration via Raman-shift changes, and substituting ethanol with GHB, which reportedly mimics alcohol’s subjective effects with a potentially safer pharmacological profile.