# Key Points from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussion

• A participant shared their experience building a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) for under $1,000, with later iterations costing $350-500, using inexpensive operational amplifiers to maintain constant current while measuring voltage changes for topographical imaging.

• The DIY STM operates by maintaining a constant tunneling current between tip and sample, with piezoelectric actuators providing approximately 1μm³ of travel range across x, y, and z axes, creating movement in a spherical/ellipsoidal pattern.

• Nathan McCorkle shared updates to a DIY laser etcher project, including pinout images and ISP operation settings, with documentation hosted on diyhpl.us.

• The discussion on brain-computer interfaces covered both invasive and non-invasive approaches, with shared academic papers on neural dust, optogenetics, and scalable biological interfaces for brain augmentation.

• IARPA's request for information on "Data Ingress and Egress for Cryogenic Systems" was discussed alongside high-resolution brain scanning and plastination as potential alternatives to current cryonics vitrification procedures.

• Electropermanent magnets were highlighted as an innovative technology used in Google's Project Ara, combining electromagnet and permanent magnet components to create high-torque, low-power motors suitable for modular robotics.

• MIT's "Reaction Mechanism Generator" (RMG) was shared as a tool for automatically generating chemical reaction mechanisms, with links to its GitHub repository and database.