- A debate on risk-aversion in technological progress: one participant argued that “people who believe in risk are often terrible, horrible people that don’t do actual work,” and linked to a 2004 extropy-chat manifesto (http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/2004-May/006399.html) as an alternative framing.

- George Church’s complete 23andMe and whole-genome data were shared via the Personal Genome Project (https://my.pgp-hms.org/user_file/download/41 and http://evidence.personalgenomes.org/genomes?display_genome_id=2e9b86bd7e2fb5b6770c2a9e9a336ba90677f83d&access_token=d6b5dbac12e8ab3afa1f25eef1ad0df5), prompting discussion on the need for accompanying life-history metadata to interpret nature-vs-nurture influences.

- A new open-source tool, CRISPETa, was highlighted for designing paired CRISPR guide RNAs that enable precise genomic deletions; it automates the previously labor-intensive DECKO protocol (paper: http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005341, pop-sci summary: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-genome-delete-button-dna.html).

- A review article on accelerating crop domestication using CRISPR genome editing was circulated, arguing that rapid domestication of wild or semi-domesticated plants could diversify agriculture and improve sustainability (paper: http://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/abstract/S1360-1385(17)30015-8, lay summary: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170302133427.htm).

- A Popular Mechanics article was discussed that proposes placing a 30-meter superconducting magnetic coil at the Mars–Sun L1 point to create a radiation-shielded “shadow” for future Mars settlements (http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a25493/magnetic-shield-mars-atmosphere/).

- A lightweight, safer rechargeable battery chemistry paper was shared, offering an alternative design intended to reduce thermal-runaway risks (http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2017/EE/C6EE02888H).

- DIY lab hardware progress: a participant reported debugging timer glitches in a custom high-voltage electroporator built with STM32 microcontrollers, moving from MicroPython to direct register manipulation for more reliable pulse control.

- Practical fabrication links included a primitive-technology walkthrough for building a forge blower from scratch (https://primitivetechnology.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/forge-blower/) and a ceramic 3-D printing demo video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luSqmjT6l00).

- A new DNA gel stain, DNazure Blue, was evaluated for niche lab use; it requires post-run gel soaking and is more expensive than SYBR stains, prompting discussion of its limited advantages over existing transilluminator setups (https://biotium.com/product/dnazure-blue-nucleic-acid-gel-stain/).