- A new Science paper reports in-vivo recordings from rat dendrites showing dendrites fire many more spikes than the soma, challenging the long-standing view that dendrites are mostly passive and that the somatic spike is the basic unit of neural computation.  
- Pharmacogenomic screening has identified small molecules that can bias neural-stem-cell differentiation toward specific lineages in vivo during postnatal and adult life, opening regenerative-medicine applications for brain repair.  
- Participants debated whether ultra-cheap whole-genome synthesis (< $1/genome) or massively parallel targeted editing is the true bottleneck for large-scale genetic engineering and molecular nanotechnology, with near-term feasibility seen in inkjet oligonucleotide synthesis followed by DNA assembly.  
- A “consensus polymerase” concept—an enzyme that reads three DNA strands and synthesizes a new strand whose bases are majority-voted—was proposed; estimates range from 10–40 years of research, and current polymerase fidelity plus DNA-repair mechanisms already provide high accuracy.  
- A “digital polymerase” is being drafted: an enzyme whose nucleotide choice, start/stop, and direction are controlled by ~5 bits encoded with optically switchable azobenzene groups; Georgia Tech is pursuing electronic rather than optical control, but practical devices remain >5 years away.  
- SAT solvers (pycoSAT, MiniSat, CryptoMiniSat, MonoSAT) are being used for PCB routing and protein design, with the ProtSAT tool enabling SAT-based protein optimization and reverse-design.  
- An optogenetic paper demonstrates epigenetic editing of the Ascl1 gene in neural stem cells, offering a potential route to activity-dependent control of neurogenesis.  
- Extensive reading lists were shared: a polymerase paper archive (http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/polymerase/), a catalog of intelligence-related human genetic variants (http://diyhpl.us/wiki/genetic-modifications/), and a slide deck on 10–100× memory enhancement in mice (http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/irc/2017-02-03-beacon.pdf).  
- A bedroom electron microscope and the open-source degate tool (https://github.com/nitram2342/degate) were showcased for chip reverse engineering, highlighting grassroots hardware-analysis capabilities.