- NIH BRAIN Initiative released two new funding calls: PAR-15-345 invites pre-applications for industry partnerships to give researchers early access to human CNS stimulation/recording devices, while RFAs NS-16-009 and NS-16-010 seek proposals for next-generation invasive devices and their clinical validation.  
- Participants identified a critical bottleneck: the lack of chemists willing to work on open-source DNA-synthesis hardware, and brainstormed solutions ranging from recruiting university labs to creating a dedicated company or apprenticeship program.  
- A curated literature package on scalable gene synthesis was shared, highlighting Duke’s chip-based enzymatic error-correction system, Agilent/Illumina microarray-derived oligo pools, and Thermo-Fisher’s CorrectASE™ enzyme kit that achieves a 500-fold reduction in synthesis errors.  
- A speculative brain–computer interface concept was proposed that would read and write memory engrams by detecting and editing epigenetic markers such as DNA methylation, bypassing the need for real-time electrophysiological recording.  
- A low-cost mini laser-etcher was demonstrated to run under Ubuntu via Wine with a simple COM1 symlink, offering an open-source alternative to the cloud-locked, high-priced GlowForge laser cutter.  
- A NICE report showing a 2.07-fold higher mortality ratio in ADHD triggered debate over whether untreated ADHD in males constitutes an anomalous mortality risk.  
- A social-neuroscience study (PMID 26274315) found that lonely individuals’ brains discriminate social-threat images ~116 ms post-stimulus, nearly twice as fast as non-lonely controls (~252 ms), suggesting heightened social vigilance.  
- An Intelligence (2006) paper was noted for reporting a positive correlation between testosterone levels and cognitive ability in prepubertal children, adding nuance to hormone-cognition discussions.