• A new therapeutic hypothesis is emerging: boosting somatostatin-interneuron activity appears protective in mouse models of Alzheimer’s (bioRxiv 465112), Parkinson’s (bioRxiv 460535) and chronic pain (Nature Neuroscience nn.4595).

• MIT Neurotech 2018 Symposium announced for 27 Nov 2018 (9 am–5 pm, MIT 46-3002, free but registration required); speakers include Tim Harris, Na Ji, Helen Mayberg, Rikky Muller, Mickael Tanter, Rafa Yuste, Peng Yin and Jin Zhang (neurotech.mit.edu).

• A scalable, modular 3-D silicon micro-electrode array fabricated by electroless plating is described in Micromachines 2018, 9, 436, offering a route to high-density neural interfaces.

• Captcha-solving as a service: antigate.com and anti-captcha.com were highlighted as practical APIs for bypassing human-verification systems at scale.

• A norbornadiene–quadricyclane “solar thermal fuel” liquid can store absorbed sunlight as chemical energy for >10 years; current variants absorb only ~4 % of the solar spectrum (up to 380 nm) and release heat at 40–50 °C, limiting practical energy-recovery efficiency.