• A discussion of proton-boron-11 (p-B11) aneutronic fusion compared to deuterium-tritium (D-T) explored the Lawson triple-product criterion; rough calculations suggested a threshold ~60× higher than D-T’s 5×10²¹ keV·s/m³, but proponents argued that picosecond ignition pulses followed by nanosecond containment could reduce the effective requirement to ~1.8×10²⁰, making the scheme “still a strong contender and should be funded.”

• Critiques of the p-B11 numbers noted that the triple-product formula assumes isotropic ion motion, whereas laser-ignited schemes accelerate ions linearly, and that the company HB11 Energy (https://www.hb11.energy/) was judged “pretty half-assed.”

• An RF-engineering insight was shared: defected ground-plane frequency-selective surfaces do not obey Babinet’s principle; instead, slot capacitance dominates, so enlarging slots to lower frequency actually decreases capacitance and is counter-productive.

• Opentrons and iGEM announced a 2018 partnership offering ten OT-2 liquid-handling robots free to selected teams and a 50 % discount to all other iGEM teams, aiming to democratize lab automation for synthetic-biology projects.

• A scavenging opportunity arose when “a few dozen k$” of nucleic-acid synthesis and sequencing equipment was spotted in a dumpster; participants debated logistics and encouraged enlisting local grad students with pizza to retrieve the gear.

• Security topics included the DNA-fog anti-theft system (SmokeCloak DNA) and speculation that CRISPR or Alzheimer’s-related biology could be weaponized, with reference to a recent speculative article on CRISPR-based neuroweapons.

• The upcoming 1 May Genome Project-write (GP-write) meeting agenda was circulated (http://engineeringbiologycenter.org/2018agenda/), highlighting sessions on large-scale genome engineering and “Engineering Biology.”