• An open-source DNA-synthesis project is pursuing inkjet-based phosphoramidite chemistry, with participants seeking a chemist to validate piezo printhead throughput, environmental constraints, and heat-pipe cooling designs for thermal management.

• The community is launching the “OpenMTA” license to replace restrictive UBMTA terms, and Twist Bioscience has committed to supplying 20 Mb of DNA under this license; a dashboard is also being built to track recently-expired and upcoming DNA patents (the last GFP patents expired in January 2017).

• Fluigi, a CAD framework for microfluidic devices, and EvoBot, an open-source liquid-handling robot costing ~€1,000 in parts, are highlighted as accessible tools for automating synthetic-biology workflows.

• Diamond NV centers found in inexpensive supermarket barcode-scanner windows are proposed as low-cost magnetometers for Zeeman-splitting experiments, supported by an arXiv paper on NV-center magnetometry.

• Bionet is described as a decentralized, federated-search inventory platform for biomaterials and lab equipment that will automate ‑80 °C sample retrieval and is being generalized for non-biological lab gear sharing.

• Participants debate the Outer Space Treaty’s implications for IP law in orbit and on geostationary satellites, noting that jurisdiction follows the national module or spacecraft owner, with examples including Blockstream’s Bitcoin broadcasts via Eutelsat and abandoned analog Satcom relays reportedly used as open relays.

• The secrecy controversy surrounding the inaugural GP-Write meeting—where Drew Endy’s live-tweeting was stopped—prompts discussion on whether small open teams can outcompete large closed consortiums.

• A Cell paper claiming “linear coding of facial identity in primate brain” is critiqued as likely an artifact of the chosen face-parameter space, with the wide firing-rate range contradicting simple tangent-space explanations.

• U.S. legal consensus holds that most synthetic DNA sequences are not copyrightable “creative works” because they rely on copy-paste from natural sequences rather than true engineering design, while extraterrestrial legal rights would require bilateral treaties, as suggested by a dismissed Ontario case of a plaintiff claiming Martian origin.