- The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy is lobbying NIH to abolish the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, claiming its oversight has become so restrictive that it is stalling gene-therapy progress.  
- DARPA’s RE-NET program issued an RFI (DARPA-SN-12-28) soliciting biocompatible materials for chronic, high-bandwidth neural interfaces capable of prosthetic control from CNS, PNS, or surface electrodes; responses were due 2 April 2012.  
- Channel participants estimated that even 100 bits/s of neural-interface throughput would exceed the fastest human typing speeds (~600 cpm) and far surpass current BCI demonstrations, highlighting the low bandwidth ceiling of today’s devices.  
- DIY gene-synthesis discussion referenced Horspool’s 2009 thesis on assembling genes from 5- to 6-mer oligos and sought more efficient ligation protocols, while noting that Complete Genomics uses proprietary chips and does not sell instruments.  
- A satirical campaign (sendthemyourmoney.com) encouraged flooding the RIAA/MPAA with scanned dollar-bill images to exploit their “digital equals physical” rhetoric, sparking debate over the legal irony.  
- Participants analyzed U.S. tax rules showing that patents and copyrights are taxed only as ordinary income, but donating IP to charity yields deductions at fair-market value, creating incentives for charities to monetize rather than liberate IP.  
- Peter Murray-Rust’s blog post condemning publishers’ bans on automated text-mining of papers was shared, along with SciGit—a Git-like version-control tool aimed at scientists—as a potential workaround.  
- A 2007 TU Wien paper on high-resolution two-photon 3-D lithography was circulated; participants speculated the same hardware could fabricate custom silicon etch masks in one step, though printable conductive photopolymers remain scarce for MEMS.  
- Non-rocket space-launch concepts discussed included QuickLaunch’s hydrogen gun, ram accelerators riding detonation waves at > Mach 8, JP Aerospace’s 40 km balloon platforms, rockoons, coil guns, and a proposed DIY “spinning balloon ring” with solar-powered ion thrusters.  
- TMS versus low-power ultrasound for non-invasive brain stimulation was debated; ultrasound offers finer spatial resolution and avoids the audible coil click of TMS, while optogenetics was cited as the ultimate—but non-DIY—modality.