- A high-school builder named Katylase returned to a 2-year-old CubeSat project (“Altair”) and shared a photo of the 1-U prototype; jrayhawk pointed to the open-source OreSat program (https://www.oresat.org/) as a university-adjacent cost-sharing model, while Katylase prefers solitary development and has no immediate launch plans.

- kanzure introduced SBX’s “Xpandomer” chemistry: a 50× elongated surrogate DNA strand synthesized with X-NTPs that expands the backbone, destroys the template, and is then read by nanopore sequencing—presented as a route to ultra-high-resolution DNA information extraction.

- Extended debate on non-synaptic theories of long-term memory: participants weighed intracellular molecular substrates, RNA-based memory, mechanical protein conformations, and the “perineuronal net (PNN) swiss-cheese” hypothesis (holes in the extracellular matrix stabilizing synapses), with a supporting PMC paper (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3725115/) cited.

- fenn outlined a speculative barcode scheme for connectome mapping: random DNA barcodes expressed in each neuron, exported to synaptic clefts, and ligated to neighboring barcodes to record connectivity—discussed as an alternative to full-brain genetic engineering.

- kanzure argued for “neural-network quines” that can predict their own weights, enabling substrate-independent mind uploading and circumventing the need to physically scan nanoscale synaptic details.

- A call for a continuously updated table of “highest-resolution, repeatable, addressable spatial modulation” capabilities (e.g., phased-array SLMs) was floated as a missing resource for the high-resolution-maximalist research community.

- The ODIN’s upcoming “Building Life” project (https://building.life/) was noted as an example of open, space-pony-grade bio-experimentation.

- Claude-on-Twitch playing Pokémon provided light entertainment: after five hours stuck in Viridian Forest maze, the AI shifted from obsessive Pokédex curation to actual gameplay, prompting commentary on emergent human-like behavior.