Just before her brain-scrapping surgery, Ellen rejects a white garment and says, "You should have brought a tumbril". The tumbril was a two wheeled horse-drawn cart used during the French Revolution to carry aristocrats to their execution by guillotine.
The technique that Chief Tyrol uses to visualize the microfractures is similar to Magnafluxing. It uses a florescent dye with magnetic particles. A magnetic field is applied to pull the particles into the fractures and then a UV light revels the cracks.
Tyrol refers to examples of substandard construction of Galactica, the cutting of corners, etc.. This issue was fairly common in Royal navy ship construction of the 18th and 19th centuries, and example being the use of copper rivets that were cut to half the required length by shipbuilders who would then sell the copper as scrap. As a result, many naval vessels of the day would leak and, in come cases, come apart during violent weather.
Anders says that the cylons had developed the hybrids and then stopped the war so they could focus on building humanoid models. This is a key element in the prequel Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2012), which documents young William Adama's experiences during the first cylon war.
John Hodgman (Dr. Gerard) rose to prominence shortly before the debut of this series by appearing in a series of 66 "Get a Mac" TV commercials, playing the role of a Windows PC, demonstrating characteristics that easily matched the role of the singularly focused but socially disconnected neurologist Dr. Gerard.