- MakerBot’s move away from open-source hardware triggered scrutiny over whether its Gen3/Gen4 electronics and extruder designs remain derivative of earlier RepRap GPL work, highlighting tensions in the open-hardware ecosystem.  
- A 15 MB DjVu of Eric Drexler’s foundational text “Nanosystems” was circulated (http://rghost.ru/40534521) to lower the barrier to studying molecular nanotechnology.  
- 23andMe launched a public API (https://api.23andme.com/) that allows third-party developers to build applications on customer genomic data, advancing an open personal-genomics ecosystem.  
- DARPA’s new “SpaceGambit” program (http://www.spacegambit.org/2012/09/21/spacegambit-program-awarded/) will fund hacker-space-driven aerospace projects, formally coupling DIY culture with government space R&D.  
- Participants debated replacing spreadsheet-based technology road-maps with directed graphs (DOT), SQLAlchemy models, or the open-source “uncertainfuture” prediction schema to better capture dependencies and uncertainty.  
- A proposed taxonomy split “Computing” into consumer-facing (HCI, natural language) and architectural (graphene transistors, spintronics, quantum) sub-domains, using graph edges to show cross-domain influences such as machine-learning → drones.  
- The Allan Hills 84001 meteorite discussion referenced claims of fossilized “magnetosomes” as possible Martian microbe evidence, with supporting analogue-research papers mirrored at http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/diybio/mars_analogue_papers/.  
- NE1 molecular-modeling CAD software (http://machinedesign.com/article/molecular-modeling-in-cad-0928) was identified as a potential tool for nano-engineering design workflows.