- A request was made for the paper “Towards automated design of mechanically functional molecules,” highlighting interest in computational molecular engineering.  
- The SETI Institute’s YouTube channel was shared, featuring talks on planetary cartography and the 100-Year Starship initiative.  
- A pre-print revising the ratio of human to bacterial cells in the body was circulated (biorxiv.org/2016/01/06/036103).  
- An open-hardware “Light Plate Apparatus” (LPA) for optogenetics was introduced: <$400, 24-well, 310–1550 nm, millisecond-resolution light control, programmed via the web tool “Iris.”  
- “Ex-STORM” combines Expansion Microscopy with STORM super-resolution, overcoming fluorophore bleaching and oxygen-scavenging issues to enable nanoscale imaging of expanded samples.  
- A CRISPR-based “molecular ticker tape” called mSCRIBE was discussed; it uses self-targeting guide RNAs to continuously mutate DNA in human cells, recording temporal molecular events such as LPS-induced inflammation in mice.  
- A genome-wide study linking language impairment to microtubule transport, motor-protein function, and cytoskeleton regulation was noted (biorxiv.org/2016/06/23/060301).  
- Founders Fund announced a new longevity-focused company, summarized via their blog post.  
- A critique of smart-contract limitations argued that without AI capable of human-level judgment, blockchain contracts remain narrowly applicable; the discussion mocked venture-capital hype around “blockchain-powered nanoAI.”  
- Halcyon Molecular’s DNA-manipulation technology was documented in a PLOS ONE paper after the company folded, preserving its methods for the open-science community.