# Key Points from IRC Discussions

• Chemical manufacturing companies like Sigma-Aldrich maintain vast catalogs (147,000 products) by using adaptable small-run pilot plants for low-demand chemicals, with Sigma manufacturing 48,000 compounds directly and sourcing the rest.

• The Aldrich Chemical Company built their valuable Rare Chemical Library by collecting samples from retiring or deceased researchers, which led to discoveries of commercially important compounds.

• Participants debated whether microfluidics technology could eventually replace traditional chemical stockrooms with on-demand synthesis capabilities, with experienced members cautioning about starting with simpler goals before attempting complex reactions.

• Researchers discussed fabrication challenges in microfluidics, describing plans to use machine vision with microscope reticles and bluray laser optics for stereolithography to compensate for mechanical imprecisions.

• The storage density of E. coli was calculated at approximately 10^27 bits/m^3, roughly 10 billion times denser than modern hard drives (at ~10^17 bits/m^3 for a 4TB HDD).

• MIT's "Eau d'coli" project was referenced as an example of genetic engineering for custom scents, where E. coli were modified to smell like bananas by inserting genes for the ATF1 enzyme that converts isoamyl alcohol to isoamyl acetate.

• One user shared their experience with intensive spaced repetition software (SuperMemo), spending 3-4 hours daily for two years, ultimately concluding that the approach becomes inefficient at high volumes of information.