• Gary Marcus’ Medium essay “In Defense of Skepticism About Deep Learning” was circulated as a critique of current deep-learning hype, prompting discussion on the limits of neural-network scaling.  
• A Reddit link to a “Colibri motion sculpture” video was shared as an example of high-speed motion capture and visualization techniques relevant to biomechanics and BCI research.  
• The channel debated ultra-high-speed DNA nanopore sequencing theory, noting that while DNA can transit a pore at 100 kbp/s, actual base-calling throughput remains the bottleneck.  
• Digital microfluidics dominated the technical discussion:  
  – Ink-jet-printed electrodes on paper and indium-tin-oxide electrowetting on glass were highlighted as low-cost, rapid-prototyping substrates.  
  – A 2014 paper on “Active digital microfluidic paper chips with inkjet-printed patterned electrodes” and a 2017 paper on high-performance organic transistors on paper were distributed as practical references.  
  – Electrowetting actuation speeds of ~25 ms per electrode were cited from OpenDrop videos, with trade-offs between valve speed and multiplexing complexity discussed.  
• Microfluidic large-scale integration (LSI) was explored: a binary-tree multiplexer can address 1024 sample channels with only 20 pneumatic valves, and an even more efficient combinatorial scheme achieves N!/((N/2)!)^2 channels with N valves—yielding 600 million addressable spots with 32 valves.  
• Contamination control in multiplexed chips was analyzed: atomically smooth channel materials, strategic rinse-valve placement, and minimal dead-volume were proposed to prevent carry-over between reactions.  
• The Arc gene story broke: two papers (PNAS on Arc restoring juvenile plasticity and Cell on Arc capsid-like extracellular vesicles mediating inter-neuronal RNA transfer) were linked as evidence that mammalian brain cells use virus-like capsids for signaling, with implications for synaptic engineering and gene-therapy vectors.  
• Steven Goldfeder’s 2018 Real-World Crypto talk and accompanying paper on “Zero-Knowledge Contingent Payments: Attacks and Payments for Services” were shared, extending zero-knowledge proofs to practical service payments and subversion-resistant protocols.