• Andrew Hessel hosted a Reddit AMA on r/Futurology titled “Coding life: the future of genetic engineering,” prompting a debate about whether DNA editing is “like programming.”  
• Participants argued that biology lacks the clean abstractions of computer science; one Hacker News comment likened it to “reverse-engineering a non-deterministic alien architecture via a noisy remote debugger that costs hundreds of dollars per peek.”  
• A Google Groups thread from the diybio list was cited to emphasize that cells are “nonlinear dynamical systems” whose true “compiler” is physics itself, warning against naive EE/CS metaphors.  
• kanzure floated the idea of making biology more linear and controllable by inserting barcodes to gate regulatory networks or even implanting semiconductor microchips into large cells, and suggested using microchips inside emulsion droplets for in-vitro directed-evolution assays.  
• Recent literature shared included virus-mediated PET imaging of gene expression (lentiviral vectors + PET/bioluminescence), advanced fluorescent protein-based synaptic reporters for large-scale circuit mapping, and a non-viral RNA transfection method to label entire adult projection-neuron axonal trees.  
• A Blade Runner-inspired electronic album called “bl2derunner” was rediscovered via a SoundCloud link, illustrating the community’s side interest in retro-futurist culture.  
• abetusk asked for command-line SVG-to-G-code converters; fenn recommended the open-source tool dxf2gcode by Christian Kohlöffel and noted that SVG→DXF→G-code is a viable workflow.