- A new programmable Cas9-serine recombinase fusion, “recCas9,” enables RNA-guided cassette exchange in mammalian cells at a minimal pseudo-core site (NNNNAAASSWWSSTTTNNNN) without pre-introduced loxP or att sites, as described in a Harvard pre-print (http://evolve.harvard.edu/123-RecCas9.pdf) and discussed alongside a photo-activated Cre recombinase from Nature Chemical Biology (http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/v12/n12/full/nchembio.2205.html).

- Participants compared sequence-specific recombinases (Cre/loxP, φC31) with non-sequence-specific strand-exchange proteins (RecA, T4 UvsX), clarifying that RecA/UvsX can mediate recombination without long homology arms by scanning dsDNA for homology.

- Current direct-to-consumer whole-genome sequencing options were noted: Veritas at $999 (30×, BAM + VCF) and FullGenomes.com at ~$1,850 (30×), with a link to a Harvard Medical School genome-services comparison page.

- A microbead-based, stepwise DNA-assembly scheme using recCas9 and alternating guide RNAs was proposed, but participants concluded that selecting E. coli or yeast strains with improved homologous recombination (e.g., recA-independent pathways) might be more practical and avoid leftover recombination scars, referencing the “in-vivo assembly cloning” (IVA) method (Nature Sci. Rep. 2015) that joins PCR fragments with only ~15–40 bp overlaps.

- Participants debated replacing webcam-based “lab-bench monitoring” with standardized, checklist-driven bench plans and digital work-tracking formats to improve reproducibility in open-source biology.

- Nick Beckstead’s paper “On the Overwhelming Importance of Shaping the Far Future” was circulated, arguing that long-term, civilization-scale interventions dwarf near-term altruistic efforts in expected value.

- Liu Cixin’s *Death’s End* inspired discussion on whether observable physics—e.g., the speed of light or the number of macroscopic dimensions—may have been altered by ancient, large-scale alien engineering or warfare.

- The EmDrive peer-reviewed paper (AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power, DOI 10.2514/1.B36120) was linked; authors claim to have ruled out magnetic-field and other mundane thrust sources, prompting debate over whether momentum-conservation violations could be circumvented by gravity-wave emission.

- A thought experiment proposed engineering a stealth virus that induces accelerated aging or memory loss in the general population as a “forcing function” to galvanize global anti-aging research, acknowledging the extreme bio-ethical hazards.

- Anecdotal report that a ketogenic, grain-free diet produced sudden cognitive insights but also illness; zinc deficiency was suggested as a possible cause.