- A PLOS ONE paper (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046182) was shared that links larger brain size to higher cancer risk via reduced apoptosis, prompting discussion that cancers might trigger retrotransposon activity and act as a source of evolutionary novelty during environmental stress.  
- kanzure posted the “diybio-equipment.yaml” bill-of-materials (http://diyhpl.us/cgit/skdb/plain/doc/BOMs/diybio-equipment.yaml) listing open-source lab gear—mostly simple actuators, fluidics, sensors, and plastics—arguing that most items are largely independent and not technologically impressive.  
- Participants surveyed the state of DIY DNA sequencing: no community-built sequencers yet exist; nanopore approaches (≈40 startups) and photon-based single-molecule methods (PacBio-style real-time polymerase sequencing) were cited as the nearest-term possibilities.  
- Recent high-profile stem-cell fraud cases in Asia were highlighted (Nature news and Japan Times articles), with broader concern that research misconduct is rising globally, referencing an Ars Technica piece on the decade-long surge in retractions.  
- Hackteria’s “BioHacking vs. BioPunk” event page and a Swiss bio-artist’s interview (NZZ, April 2012) were critiqued for framing DIY biology as an ideological contest rather than a technical endeavor.  
- Newcomers asked whether anyone had “gone transhuman for real,” prompting realistic replies: current self-experimentation is limited to magnets, prosthetics, cochlear implants, and early gene therapies—random “DIY gene stuff” injections were strongly discouraged.