- OpenTrons is pursuing a rare dual-track funding model, courting SOS Ventures while simultaneously launching a Kickstarter, signaling possible VC skepticism about lab-automation hardware.  
- The Linux Foundation’s new “Dronecode” project unifies ArduPilot and PX4 into a single open-source autopilot stack already adopted by 3DRobotics, Skycatch, and PrecisionHawk, with more than 1,200 active contributors.  
- A Caltech paper describes a 2-D DNA lattice that implements arbitrary chemical reaction networks via 3- and 4-way branch-migration reactions, enabling massively parallel, spatially-addressable molecular computation beyond well-mixed solutions.  
- IndieBio (SOS Ventures’ biotech accelerator) is recruiting teams for transcription-based DNA logic gates, though channel members doubt the near-term commercial prospects of molecular computing.  
- Cryonics logistics were dissected: Alcor dues range from $39–$590 per year, neuro-only preservation costs $80 k, and participants emphasized the need for local allies to prevent hospital interference during standby.  
- Genomic pricing snapshots: Gene-by-Gene currently quotes $8 k for a whole human genome, $1 k for an exome, and ~$120 k for a fully finished, manually curated assembly, underscoring the data-to-reference-quality gap.  
- A rational-cryptography paper argues that protocols can be designed to remain secure even when adversaries act purely according to economic incentives rather than arbitrary malice.  
- A fully functional AVR CPU emulator has been implemented entirely in LaTeX—10 000× slower than hardware but valuable as an extreme educational hack.