- A DIY-bio newcomer repeatedly asked for “cells to make fluorescent proteins” and was told to start by assembling protocols, equipment lists, and documentation instead of expecting ready-made kits.  
- kanzure shared a curated protein-simulation bibliography from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (http://www.dddc.ac.cn/embo04/) and posted a mirror of protein-focused books at http://heybryan.org/books/Biology/proteins/.  
- gene discovered 28 bound volumes of 1970s “Fluidics Quarterly” in a university library and began investigating copyright status and scanning logistics, with plans to OCR and seed the forgotten fluidics technology online.  
- The Austin “fab-lab” (unaffiliated with UT) is still in early clean-up and inventory stages; fenn moved to Texas specifically to bootstrap it, while willPow3r reported on a San Diego educational fab-lab (Heads-On-Fire) oriented toward high-school outreach.  
- gene spotted an Instructables contest (http://www.instructables.com/contest/epilogchallenge/) offering a free Epilog laser cutter, proposing the Austin group enter to accelerate their tooling.  
- kanzure floated the idea of designing reusable fixtures for mechanically automating agarose-gel production to serve high-throughput DIY-bio needs.  
- RepRap blog coverage of a “pull-yourself-together” self-replicating bot was linked, with commentary noting the low fidelity of its documentation (a photo of a screen rather than a screenshot).