- The community debated whether genomics is truly in a “data deluge,” with one participant arguing that while sequencing is outpacing Moore’s law, storage throughput is not, and another countering that the real bottleneck is still too few samples for high-dimensional genomic problems.  
- A Wall Street Journal article on “Citizen Scientists” was shared, highlighting ordinary people publishing their own DNA and running personal experiments; the group’s reaction centered on the cost barrier (“science is FUCKING expensive”) and the perception that non-institutional research is labeled terrorism.  
- A New York Times piece claiming DNA sequencing is outpacing Moore’s law was critiqued as literally wrong, yet its practical implications—especially storage and analysis bottlenecks—were acknowledged.  
- Practical fabrication question: superkuh asked for a general method to monitor film thickness during spin-coating of polyvinyl alcohol, suggesting optical interference via thin-film color changes.  
- kanzure noted that while he can connect people who use sequencers, he does not know anyone who personally owns multiple machines; Jason Bobe at the Personal Genome Project might provide access to PGP sequencers.  
- JayDugger reported applying for a field-service role at Objet Geometries despite an 80 % travel requirement and mentioned a similar opening near Indianapolis for interested parties.