• A pre-print (arXiv:1607.02969) proposes that myelinated axons behave as photonic waveguides, enabling neurons to exchange biophotons alongside electro-chemical signals and suggests experiments to test whether this optical channel could support long-range quantum entanglement in the brain.

• Participants outlined open-source routes to heavy-water (D₂O) production via repeated electrolysis of tap water, discussed adapting uranium-enrichment techniques such as laser-excited SILEX and MEMS aerodynamic nozzles for H/D separation, and noted that tritium released by light-water reactors could serve as a local deuterium/tritium source.

• A 2009 theoretical paper described template-free enzymatic DNA synthesis using Terminal Deoxyribonucleotidyl Transferase (TdT) with reversible terminators or engineered single-turnover TdT mutants to build multi-kilobase strands without ligation, aiming to eliminate the >300 000 gal/yr of toxic solvents used in conventional oligo synthesis; the concept is now patented by Molecular Assemblies Inc. (US 9,279,149).

• Recent 5 ms aggregate molecular-dynamics simulations reveal that the DNA-polymerase “fingers” domain oscillates at ~300 Hz, with each PPi release driving translocation, and that fidelity mutations or mis-paired dNTPs bias the enzyme toward open conformations—findings that could guide engineering of high-fidelity, long-read DNA synthesis.

• A new protein graph repository converts every PDB entry into annotated graph structures for machine-learning and network analysis, with an example entry for mammalian poly(A) polymerase available at http://wjdi.bioinfo.uqam.ca/.

• An ACS Applied Materials paper demonstrated that ordinary white bread can be pyrolyzed into a carbon foam (density 0.29 g/cc, compressive strength 3.6 MPa, thermal conductivity 0.06 W/m·K), sparking discussion about casting metals into the foam and extending the method to other biomass such as banana peels and coffee grounds.

• A surface-tension droplet sorter (Lab Chip 2016, DOI: 10.1039/C6LC00673F) was highlighted as a potential low-cost tool for separating dye-labeled DNA oligos in brine, while a Bangladeshi pH-control paper was judged too slow for real-time DNA-sequencing feedback.

• Participants explored the idea of a “nanorap”—a reprap-style FDM printer scaled to nanometers using focused-ion-beam lithography with organometallic precursors—and proposed building a library of electrically or optically triggered conformational changes (e.g., 90° bends) as modular components for future molecular machines.