• A curated reading list of high-impact papers was circulated, spanning photofabrication of azobenzene polymer gratings, mantis-shrimp cavitation mechanics, super-resolution structured-illumination microscopy, throat-mic speech recognition, protein-isolation protocols, magnetizable nanomaterials for cell-fate switching, and network-state correlates of decision-making in anterior cingulate cortex.

• The SKDB project is building an open-source, Python-based “apt-get for real stuff” that couples a hardware package manager with CAD/CAM geometry kernels (Open CASCADE); recent commits add LEGO part definitions, a Python-LEGO API, and coordinate-system visualization demos, all hosted at adl.serveftp.org/skdb.git.

• Participants framed open-source fragmentation as evolutionary “speciation” rather than failure, arguing that distributed repositories (e.g., SKDB) can democratize closed efforts like Dr. Theodore Berger’s artificial hippocampus by providing p2p replication infrastructure and shared component libraries.

• Practical DIY biology converged on garage-scale automation: $10 K-mart blowers for supplied-air hoods, $500 Mendel-class RepRaps using community-printed parts, 10–100 mL automated micro-reactors driven by retrosynthetic-analysis software, and open chemical-supply trading networks to stock reagents and glassware.

• Toolchain highlights include pyscholar (YAML-driven batch PDF harvesting into ~/public_html/papers), pymates (a compatibility engine modeling Lego bricks as the first test case for generalized part mating), and Emacs org-mode/Gnus/BBDB workflows for mass-personalized outreach and automated task reminders via Zenity pop-ups.

• Active R&D bottlenecks discussed: purifying nucleotides for DIY DNA synthesis (evaluating column chromatography and reduced-pressure steam distillation), locating HL-1 cardiomyocyte media recipes and cardiomyocyte-specific protein lists, and sourcing 3-neck flasks, vacuum glassware, and overhead stirrers for chlor-alkali cell experiments.