- esmerelda posted a new wiki page on the Nanopore MinION sequencer at https://madgenderscience.wiki/wiki/Sequencing and asked whether anyone is systematically tracking nanopore-based DNA/RNA sequencing approaches.  
- MrHindsight and nmz787 debated the technical limitations of the MinION platform; MrHindsight called its error rates “a failed lab experiment,” while nmz787 argued the thick biological nanopore is currently the best available option.  
- kanzure shared two Nature papers on in-vitro derivation of female reproductive tissues: “Directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into fallopian tube epithelium” (2017) and “In vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into ovarian follicle-like cells” (2017).  
- Discussion of whether functional ovary organoids yet exist; yashgaroth noted that current oocyte-culture protocols simply “chop out a slice of ovary and dunk it in serum-free media with activin.”  
- kanzure circulated a Google-Scholar list of follow-up studies to the 2009 paper “Ovarian germline stem cells: an unlimited source of oocytes?” to track progress on deriving oocytes from stem cells.  
- mrdata_ highlighted the 2016 announcement of aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation for brain tissue (http://www.evidencebasedcryonics.org/2016/02/09/aldehyde-stabilized-brain-cryopreservation-announcement/); kanzure noted the researcher has since founded a company offering the procedure.  
- kanzure linked a curated “Crypto readings & resources” list from Andreessen Horowitz (https://a16z.com/2018/02/10/crypto-readings-resources/) and a Bryan Bishop wiki commit on hardening the Lightning Network.  
- A brief exchange on the cultural universality of facial expressions referenced the PNAS paper “Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal” (2012) and a counter-pdf showing conserved liking/disliking expressions across mammals.