- A new pre-print questions the validity of super-centenarian records, showing that the highest reported ages cluster in regions lacking reliable birth certificates and exhibiting otherwise low life-expectancy, suggesting possible age inflation or fraud (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v1).

- Researchers released a whole-brain, biomechanically integrated connectome of C. elegans that couples neural dynamics to physical movement, providing a complete simulation framework for identifying sensorimotor pathways (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/724328v1).

- A Nature Methods paper describes “kilohertz frame-rate two-photon tomography,” a line-scanning technique that achieves >1 GHz voxel rates and enables millisecond-scale imaging of glutamate, acetylcholine and voltage indicators across hundreds of dendritic spines in vivo at depths >250 µm (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-019-0493-9).

- An ACS Analytical Chemistry article introduces an “acoustic mist ionization platform” for contactless, high-throughput liquid handling that could miniaturize and parallelize lab automation workflows (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.9b00142).

- Channel members brainstormed a “proof-of-proximity” cryptocurrency secured by speed-of-light latency: satellites or celestial radio sources (Sun, Jupiter) would broadcast unpredictable signals, and miners would prove physical co-location by meeting strict round-trip-time constraints, incentivizing geographic dispersion and even the construction of orbital or deep-space mining rigs.