• Lifespan.io announced a new grant program offering up to $500 k for open, reproducible aging-research projects under the Impetus Grants scheme.  
• FDA has scheduled a 19 Sept 2023 Pediatric Advisory Committee meeting to discuss rule-making for artificial-womb technology; participants debated whether to submit public comments and noted the current focus is on rescuing extremely premature infants rather than full gestation ex utero.  
• Two competing technical visions for artificial wombs were outlined: (1) a full-ectogenesis system using synthetic placentas and complex blood-filtration machinery, criticized as prohibitively expensive and biologically incomplete, versus (2) an “ex-vivo human uterus” approach in which a donated uterus is perfused with standard banked blood or blood-substitutes and an embryo is induced to implant.  
• Discussion highlighted that ectopic/abdominal pregnancies progress faster than intrauterine ones, suggesting the maternal organism normally throttles resource flow; participants speculated whether early-stage blastocysts could be transplanted to non-uterine sites (e.g., male or female abdominal cavity) and later rescued by surgical transfer to an external system.  
• Practical challenges raised for the ex-vivo uterus model included sourcing infection-free organs, maintaining sterile perfusion, and providing the full spectrum of blood functions—current perfluorocarbon emulsions were judged inadequate because they evaporate and supply only oxygen transport.  
• A Springer review on modern blood substitutes (10.1007/s40005-022-00590-y) was shared as a starting point for evaluating oxygen-carrier alternatives to donor blood.  
• Google’s unexplained deletion of user bookmarks was cited as an example of centralized platforms silently curating or censoring information.  
• A Reddit post lamented recursive self-citation chains in synthetic-chemistry literature, making it difficult to locate actual experimental protocols.  
• Channel members defended “hobbyist” or amateur science, citing historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Cavendish, and Newton as evidence that groundbreaking research often originates outside formal institutions.