- A 2020 review on total chemical protein synthesis was shared, summarizing advances in assembling full-length proteins purely through synthetic chemistry rather than biological expression (ACS JACS link).  
- Raygun, a new template-based protein-design tool, was highlighted: it can shrink proteins 10–25 % (sometimes >50 %) while preserving structure and function; GitHub repo and BioRxiv preprint provided, along with examples of miniaturized fluorescent proteins eGFP and mCherry.  
- Discussion of applying Raygun to Venter’s synthetic Mycoplasma genome to push toward an even smaller “minimal minimal genome.”  
- Wei Dai tweeted a preference for low global population to ease AI-x-risk governance; channel members criticized the idea as enabling totalitarian control and fueling “New World Order” conspiracy narratives.  
- A Nature paper on human hippocampal neurons was circulated, showing that abstract, disentangled representations emerge during inferential reasoning and correlate with complex cognition.  
- Follow-up links connected hippocampal modeling to modern deep learning: an arXiv paper mapping the TEM (Temporal Episodic Memory) model to transformer attention, plus the original TEM proposal in Cell and related Nature work on hippocampal replay.  
- Mechanical-computation history was explored with links about Plan 28’s progress deciphering Charles Babbage’s mechanical notation for the Analytical Engine and a Lego Antikythera-mechanism attempt.