- Early speculation about the 2019-nCoV outbreak included a ZeroHedge article alleging the virus was stolen from a Canadian lab and weaponized by China; participants quickly dismissed the claim, noting that a deliberately engineered bioweapon would likely be far more lethal.  
- A new pre-print describes a standardized, open-source head-fixation rig for large-scale in-vivo electrophysiology in mice, aimed at improving reproducibility across labs (bioRxiv 2020.01.22.916007).  
- SYNPLA (Synaptic Proximity Ligation Assay) was highlighted: a PNAS-reported technique that tags recently potentiated synapses by detecting co-localization of GluA1 AMPA receptors and pathway-specific presynaptic markers, enabling brain-wide mapping of learning-induced plasticity.  
- BAcTrace, another pre-print tool, offers retrograde, cell-type-specific neuronal circuit tracing via a barcoded adenovirus library, potentially accelerating connectomics studies (bioRxiv 2020.01.24.918656).  
- Alan Aspuru-Guzik’s “self-driving laboratory” concept was shared from University of Toronto Magazine: an AI-driven automation platform that designs and executes chemistry experiments with minimal human intervention after initial setup.  
- Upcoming Longevity Therapeutics conference in San Francisco was announced as a near-term gathering for aging-research stakeholders.  
- A lightweight Game Boy Advance emulator post (“infinite-loop holy grail”) was circulated for its technical discussion on cycle-accurate emulation and performance tricks (mgba.io).