• Excimer-laser lithography is approaching 22 nm features (126 nm wavelength limit); nanoimprint lithography is discussed as a disruptive, lower-cost path to distributed ASIC fabrication outside Intel’s roadmap.  
• A DIY microfluidics concept repurposes hard-disk head-positioning hardware, plastic wrap, magnetic beads and PDMS to create programmable micro-scale biological assays.  
• HomeCMOS (code.google.com/p/homecmos) is cited as the open-source CMOS fabrication effort; the group notes only two nanoimprint papers in its archive.  
• 86-million-year-old deep-sea red clay still hosts living, oxygen-respiring microbes 30 m below the seafloor, metabolizing at 10⁻³ fmol O₂ cell⁻¹ day⁻¹, illustrating extreme long-term survival on trace energy.  
• Commercial cryogenic jet cutting (Nitrocision) uses liquid nitrogen or CO₂ pellets to machine soft biopolymers; expansion ratios (LN₂ 1:694, CO₂ 1:554) make low-pressure operation feasible.  
• Historical patent litigation shows Applied Biosystems aggressively enforcing DNA-synthesis and mass-spec patents, including claims that mailing nucleotide samples constitutes direct infringement.  
• Debian now packages OpenSCAD 2011.12, simplifying open-source solid modeling for hardware prototyping.  
• Joseph Jackson’s “Network for Open Scientific Innovation” meetup is scheduled for June 16 in the SF Bay Area (startupscience.eventbrite.com); the group plans DIY DNA synthesis and microfluidics demos at Langton Labs, Halcyon Molecular and 3Scan.  
• kanzure has prototype code that exports 2-D microfluidic geometries as SVG, DXF and STEP from implicit (F-rep) models, aiming for an ImplicitCAD-like workflow; a weekend hackathon could complete the CAD-to-toolpath pipeline.