• A pre-print on “2C-HR-CRISPR” (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/10/16/204339) claims 95 % knock-in efficiency for large DNA insertions in mouse embryos, potentially accelerating transgenic animal work for open-source biology.

• A Nature Communications paper (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01104-3) describes a mass-spectrometry method that sequences long synthetic polymer data by inserting alkoxyamine cleavage sites and mass-tag labels, offering a non-enzymatic route to reading digital polymers.

• Participants debated the imminent rise of “Do-it-on-Yourself CRISPR,” citing Antonio Regalado’s Twitter thread on societal consequences, and noted the recent live-streamed DIY HIV therapeutic self-injection by Ascendence Biomedical.

• The GeneMods “10K Genes Brainstorming Session” video (http://youtu.be/J0abA635lDI) was highlighted as a source of open-source ideas for large-scale gene synthesis and distribution, while the now-defunct Reddit r/bionet free-gene-synthesis offer prompted suggestions to submit longevity or bioluminescence genes from http://diyhpl.us/wiki/genetic-modifications/.

• A GitHub KiCad project (https://github.com/nmz787/xray_detector) for a PIN-photodiode-based radiation probe was shared; discussion centered on using femtoamp-noise op-amps instead of discrete JFETs, achieving light-tight aluminum-foil shielding, and calibrating the detector for spectroscopic use inside a vacuum chamber.