- Twist Bioscience is in active negotiations for a six-month IARPA-funded government contract (not a grant) to advance DNA-based data storage, potentially bringing “substantial non-directed funding” to the company.  
- A $10,000 open bounty was announced for engineering Streptococcus mutans strains that no longer produce lactic acid, aiming to eliminate the primary bacterial cause of dental caries.  
- Discussion of post-Silk-Road darknet marketplaces pointed users to the Tor onion address http://dreadditevelidot.onion/d/DarkNetMarkets as a replacement for the banned /r/darknetmarkets subreddit.  
- Participants briefly debated the viability of newer markets “Core Market” and “Tchka” as successors to recently shuttered major darknet sites.  
- A side conversation critiqued mainstream media economics, with one member advocating Usenet and other decentralized distribution models over paid streaming services that still carry advertisements.