- A Harvard-hosted astrophysics abstracts database (adsabs.harvard.edu) was highlighted as a search tool for physics and NASA literature.  
- The 2019 iGEM competition yielded notable projects: DNA steganography, a “plasmid recorder of biological events,” fountain-code-based DNA data storage, modular virus-like particle expression systems, and paper-strip gene assays using fusion proteins.  
- Discussion of a “library commons” proposal—a defensive copyright pool for written works—revealed skepticism that demand for such access is overestimated.  
- Bitcoin/Lightning micropayment schemes were debated for splitting article payments among authors, institutions, and platforms, plus bar-code-based food purchases at makerspaces.  
- A distributed-GPU compute-shader idea was floated, then tempered by the reminder that most scientific GPGPU workloads are network-bound and need fast interconnects like InfiniBand.  
- Gen-Z interconnect standards aim to unify entire data-center memory spaces, raising concerns that 64-bit addressing may soon be insufficient.  
- Real-world server fires were recounted (dust-laden fans, leaking capacitors), with skepticism about the efficacy of automated fire-suppression systems in data centers.  
- A Wiley paper on “Temporal stability of functional brain modules associated with human intelligence” was shared, alongside a mouse study showing lifelong amphetamine exposure reduces tumor incidence by 40 %.