- A Nature paper (s41419-018-0765-9) on reversible mitochondrial dysfunction in mice was discussed; kanzure emphasized that mitochondrial damage is a real-world phenomenon, while ebowden_ proposed a more accurate headline: “wrinkled skin and hair loss observed when mitochondrial function disrupted; skin and hair returns to normal following resumption of mitochondrial function.”

- Ethical objections to human-embryo gene editing were highlighted, including a quote warning that curing genetic diseases could “leave those with the diseases feeling more marginalised and with less medical support.”

- Church-lab research shared:  
  – Aach et al. (eLife 2017) on ethical governance of synthetic human embryo-like entities.  
  – Busskamp et al. (Mol. Syst. Biol. 2014) on rapid neurogenesis via transcriptional activation in stem cells.  
  – Ng & Khoshakhlagh et al. (2018, in prep) titled “Programming cell fates.”  
  – Slides from George Church’s 20 July 2018 “Hack Church” talk: http://arep.med.harvard.edu/gmc/ppt/18Jul20_Hack_Church.pdf

- Tools and resources posted:  
  – Harvard Personal Genome Project’s first hackathon: https://pgp.med.harvard.edu/events/pgp-hackathon-1-0  
  – Browser-based SolveSpace CAD: https://files.whitequark.org/SolveSpace/solvespace.html  
  – Drexler-related pre-print “Molecular Imprinting: The missing piece in the puzzle of abiogenesis?” https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.07065

- Neurotechnology and optogenetics updates from Ed Boyden’s Twitter feed:  
  – Two-color optogenetic activation (Chronos/Chrimson) used to induce synaptic plasticity that alters alcohol consumption (Nature Neuroscience 2018).  
  – Automated in-vivo patch-clamp validation of multielectrode array spike recordings (J. Neurophysiol. 2017).  
  – New transgenic mouse lines for enhanced brain-cell-type targeting (Cell 2018).  
  – Local protein synthesis in axon terminals and dendritic spines as a context-dependent plasticity mechanism (bioRxiv 2018).

- Security discussion: Intel’s Management Engine remote-code vulnerability affects all current processors; AMD is not vulnerable to Meltdown but is susceptible to Spectre and has its own analogous “Platform Security Processor” (PSP).

- Kurzgesagt’s popular 2016 CRISPR explainer video (“Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything Forever”) was re-shared as an accessible primer on gene editing.