• Caltech’s new ultrasound-based brain-machine interface (reported by SciTechDaily) was highlighted as a potential alternative to fMRI, which currently confines users to a giant magnet; participants speculated that future sensors—possibly SQUID-based ultra-low-field MRI, PET, EEG, TMS, or millimeter-wave scanning—could eliminate that constraint.

• MIT’s 2016 “DuoSkin” project for temporary-tattoo on-skin interfaces was revisited; the group noted the project appears stalled (expired SSL cert, no updates since 2016) and debated whether gold-leaf or thin-film sensors could achieve the sensitivity needed for reliable capacitive touch when fully adhered to skin.

• OpenAI’s Whisper automatic speech-recognition model was praised as a major leap in open, local audio-to-text capability; links to Jameson Lopp’s comparative tests and the open-source Buzz desktop client (real-time mic transcription via Whisper) were shared.

• Concerns were raised about fraudulent chemical vendors listed in PubChem: participants identified “BenchChem” and “Smolecule” as suspicious entries with unverifiable addresses and implausibly large catalogs, noting that PubChem’s submission process allows anyone to add vendors without validation.

• Colossal Biosciences (mammoth-de-extinction startup based in Austin) and its newly spun-out venture Form Bio—which just raised $30 million for a computational life-sciences platform—were discussed as significant developments in synthetic biology and longevity technology.