- A new Science paper reports the first in-vitro generation of human oogonia (precursor egg cells) from induced pluripotent stem cells, achieved by reconstituting “xenogeneic ovaries” using mouse tissue as a scaffold.  
- Discussion links the work to long-term visions of on-demand gametogenesis and artificial reproductive technologies.  
- fltrz is learning density-functional theory (DFT) to simulate luminescence of fluorescent DNA monomers, aiming to enable sub-diffraction-limit addressing in a proposed DNA-tape data storage system.  
- The luminescence-modulation concept would multiplex excitation/emission wavelengths so each monomer can be uniquely read or written through a nanopore that also functions as an optical waveguide.  
- nmz787 points to PacBio’s zero-mode waveguide (ZMW) technology—nanoscale metal apertures that confine light to zeptoliter volumes—as a proven route to single-molecule fluorescence detection and suggests it could be adapted for the DNA-tape scheme.  
- superkuh mentions ongoing electromagnetic simulations of “zeroth and negative mode” planar PCB filters, indicating parallel exploration of sub-wavelength optical confinement techniques.