- De-novo protein design and molecular machine systems were highlighted through two key papers: “From de novo protein design to molecular machine systems” (Foresight Institute talk) and the 2016 Nature review by Huang & Boyken from David Baker’s lab, which map the path from custom protein folds to functional nanomachines.  
- A second protein-engineering reference, “Protein assembly and building blocks: Beyond the limits of the Lego-brick metaphor” (Levy lab, Biochemistry 2017), argues that current modular-assembly paradigms are too restrictive and advocates more flexible, non-Lego strategies for constructing protein architectures.  
- Discussion of additive-manufacturing techniques explored using electron-beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) and helium-ion-beam-induced reduction of platinum solutions (Oak Ridge) as possible routes to true 3-D vapor-to-solid printing; line-of-sight constraints and the need for beam steering were noted.  
- A speculative concept was floated for a six-degree-of-freedom robotic arm that “draws” 3-D shapes inside a vapor chamber via a super-cooled copper micro-nozzle jetting hydrogen to freeze structures on the fly, potentially enabling ultra-light metallic microlattices or aerographite-like foams.  
- The “One-pixel attack” paper (arXiv 1710.08864) was circulated, showing that state-of-the-art deep neural networks can be fooled into misclassification by altering just a single pixel, prompting Hacker-News-level debate on adversarial robustness.  
- A 2005 NCBI paper on T4 DNA ligase was shared, revealing that—unlike E. coli ligase, Taq ligase, or Ampligase—T4 ligase can join single-stranded DNA ends without requiring any duplex at the ligation site, expanding toolkits for DNA nanostructure and assembly work.  
- A CoinDesk article on Bitcoin’s “talent shortage” was posted, framing the growing demand for experienced protocol developers as a bottleneck for cryptocurrency scalability and security.  
- Historical physics came up when fltrz described the Esterman–Simpson–Stern experiment that verified the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution by evaporating atoms through a slit and letting them deposit on screens at different distances to select velocities, linking line-of-sight deposition principles to modern vapor-printing ideas.