- A new cluster of predatory open-access publishers in India and Nigeria is charging >$1000 per page, cloning legitimate journal titles, and spamming academics with fake acceptance letters; the Scholarly Open Access blog is cataloging these scams.  
- EXPAR (Exponential Amplification Reaction), described in a 2003 PNAS paper, uses a nicking enzyme plus polymerase for isothermal DNA amplification and appears to be an under-cited precursor to today’s isothermal amplification schemes.  
- A high-resolution, non-OCR’d scan of Eric Drexler’s foundational text “Nanosystems” has been recovered and re-shared as nanosystems.tar after the original file vanished from public servers.  
- A new “DIY Cryobiology” wiki is being launched to create an open-source, reproducible branch of cryopreservation research, explicitly separating itself from earlier amateur cryonics efforts.  
- Google Groups now limits users to 200 mailing-list subscriptions, complicating archival efforts and fragmenting emerging communities such as the Biocurious robo- and bioinfo-hacking lists.  
- The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences—backed by Silicon Valley figures including Apple chairman Art Levinson—illustrates the growing role of private wealth in funding basic biological research.  
- A constructable interactive drafting table lets users draw cuts directly on a workpiece with a handheld laser pointer; the system tracks the pointer in real time and immediately executes the cuts with a high-power laser, merging design and fabrication into a single gesture-based workflow.  
- Obsolete MakerBot Mk4 Plastruders can be up-cycled into hand-held plastic welding guns, providing a second life for discarded 3-D-printing hardware as tools for joining or repairing thermoplastic parts.