- NAD metabolism: mammalian cells cannot convert nicotinamide (NAM) to nicotinic acid (NA) intracellularly; they depend on bacterial nicotinamidases in the gut via the Preiss-Handler salvage pathway.  
- George Church & experts panel on “The Future of Human Enhancements” discussed voluntary genetic modifications and the risk of corporate marketing manipulation; a partial transcript was posted.  
- DEFCAD (3-D-printed gun repository) announced it will resume public downloads on August 1, 2018.  
- Retrosynthesis software: nmz787 highlighted a J. Chem. Inf. Model. paper describing an algorithm that assigns reaction roles with 88–97 % accuracy on patent data and runs in ~8 ms per reaction; GitHub repositories for chemical-retrosynthesis tools were noted.  
- Experimental embryology deep-dive: Huxley & de Beer (1934) documented multi-headed planarians produced by grafting; Lim1 knockout yields headless mouse embryos that die at E10; Otx2 double knockouts delete large brain regions.  
- Organ cryopreservation: Arigos Biomedical is developing flash-freezing methods to improve transplantation outcomes.  
- Geoengineering debate: participants argued that large-scale climate casualties could trigger governments to fund published geoengineering proposals, and discussed the political framing of such interventions.  
- Environmentalism critique: channel members debated whether “preserving nature” is coherent on lifeless worlds (e.g., Mars) and whether conservation ethics unjustifiably prioritize non-human ecosystems over human transformation.