- MC1R on chromosome 16 was pinpointed as the sole locus for red hair, sparking half-serious talk about pre-implantation genetic screening and “a cure.”  
- A 34 °C heat-shock switch in C. elegans was demonstrated to turn GFP on only in amphid sheath neurons, offering a low-cost optogenetic toggle for DIY labs.  
- Backyard Brains’ $100 “SpikerBox” for recording action potentials was highlighted, with an upcoming meetup at Hacker Dojo and outreach to the diybio list.  
- A 44 GB NIH Personal Genomics trace-data dump was successfully mirrored, marking an early effort to decentralize whole-genome datasets.  
- SKDB (reprap.org/wiki/RBS) was introduced as an open-source CAD parts database for self-replicating machines, complete with procedural construction instructions.  
- The “1kfriend.ly” project was prototyped to log every person met, timestamp each interaction, and auto-generate per-person topic clouds; raw data and concept PDF are at http://designfiles.org/~bryan/1kfriend.ly.pdf.  
- fenn released a multi-year, minute-resolution self-tracking dataset (sleep, food, program use, TV) at http://fennetic.net/sleep/test.txt for QS research.  
- A static-analysis engine that scans C/C++, Java, JSP, C#, VB, and PHP for security vulnerabilities was discussed as a commercial-grade tool for open-source adoption.  
- Participants noted a research gap in high-resolution finger kinematics during real typing and suggested repurposing film-industry motion-capture pipelines or an existing ASL-to-English glove project to fill it.