• A Mirror Semiconductor foundry page (mirrorsemi.com/foundry.html) was shared, with a note that reserving an entire 28 nm wafer run costs about $40 k, while smaller “multi-project wafer” slots can be as low as $5 k.

• Participants debated the exploding cost of leading-edge semiconductor fabs, citing 2014 estimates of $10 B to build and equip a state-of-the-art plant, rising to ~$20 B today, driven largely by ultra-expensive lithography tools—ASML’s EUV steppers now sell for ~$110 M each.

• Discussion turned to whether a fab dedicated solely to Bitcoin-mining ASICs could amortize its cost; the consensus was that mask-set creation and the multi-billion-dollar capital outlay still dominate, even if electricity is the larger ongoing expense.

• Clean-room economics were dissected: laminar-flow air systems and vibration isolators are relatively cheap, whereas specialty equipment maintenance and the need to keep entire rooms clean (rather than localized enclosures) drive the bulk of operating expense.

• NASA’s ISS experiment “The Landscape of DNA and RNA Methylation Before, During, and After Human Space Travel” was highlighted; kanzure noted that resetting methylation in every somatic cell is likely infeasible and suggested germ-line delivery of epigenetic-stabilization tech as a more tractable path.

• A paper on using lunar-eclipse spectra to view Earth as an exoplanet (“High-resolution transmission spectrum of the Earth’s atmosphere…”) was linked, alongside tongue-in-cheek speculation about surviving multi-gee interplanetary acceleration while submerged with scuba gear.