• A call was made for a systematic breeding program to create a full suite of CAM-cycle agricultural crops to replace C3/C4 staples, arguing the effort should have begun 75 years ago; historical context from a plant-breeding veteran cited institutional inertia, patent concerns, and lack of desert-crop investment as reasons it never happened.

• Discussion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biology linked purified E. coli endotoxin to obesity and insulin resistance in germ-free mice (PMID 17456850), explored why humans are ~3–4 orders of magnitude more sensitive to LPS than other primates, and proposed evolutionary pressure from respiratory pathogens with hexa-acylated LPS.

• LDL and PCSK9 were framed as central to both lipid transport and innate immunity: PCSK9 inhibitors accelerate LDL clearance, lowering residence time and oxidative damage; LDL particles themselves appear to scavenge LPS, suggesting an unexpected intersection between fat-metabolism and bacterial-detoxification systems.

• The concept of chronic, low-grade endotoxemia—driven by grain-heavy diets—was advanced as a confounder in human LPS challenge studies and a possible contributor to modern metabolic disease; LBP (LPS-binding protein) was highlighted as a potential intervention target.

• A frugal, cell-free CRISPR educational kit (Nature Comms 2024, crisprkit.org) was shared; although currently limited to in-vitro DNA modification, it was praised for its safety and accessibility in high-school or DIY settings.