• Microsoft’s Project Silica demonstrated writing 75.6 GB of data onto a 7.5 cm × 7.5 cm × 2 mm quartz-glass wafer using femtosecond-laser–etched 3-D nanoscale gratings; the medium survived baking, boiling, microwaving, demagnetization and steel-wool abrasion, positioning it as a candidate for archival storage measured in centuries rather than decades.

• CreLite, a red-light–activated split-Cre recombinase system, was reported on bioRxiv: PhyB-CreC and PIF6-CreN fusion proteins reconstitute Cre activity in zebrafish embryos only under 660 nm illumination and exogenous phycocyanobilin, enabling optogenetic, tissue-specific gene expression with single-cell resolution during development.

• CHYRON (Cell HistorY Recording by Ordered iNsertion) was introduced as a single-locus “DNA punch card” that records temporal events by sequentially inserting random nucleotides; it functions both as a lineage tracer and as an analog recorder of user-defined stimuli in mammalian cells.

• A pair of preprints linked DNA double-strand breaks to epigenetic drift and proposed that accumulating epigenetic anomalies—rather than mutations alone—are a major driver of mammalian aging, suggesting that stabilizing chromatin states could be a tractable anti-aging intervention.

• A CellAge “epigenetic clock” for cultured human cells was described that accelerates screening of anti-aging compounds in vitro; participants noted that coupling the clock to a genetic circuit could enable directed evolution of peptides or small molecules that slow or reverse the clock.

• “DNA punch cards” and “let’s encrypt our plasmids” papers explored encoding digital data into native DNA via targeted nicking and proposed cryptographic watermarking of synthetic constructs, respectively, aiming to improve data density and biosafety of engineered sequences.

• Deep reinforcement learning was shown to control microbial co-cultures in bioreactors, dynamically adjusting nutrient feeds and environmental parameters to maintain desired population ratios and metabolite yields—an example of closed-loop AI-driven bioprocess optimization.

• Genetic-design-automation tools were presented for programming human cells to self-organize into arbitrary multicellular shapes: one approach uses recombinase-based circuits, while another relies on engineered cell-cell signaling to sculpt tissues starting from a single progenitor.

• Heat-resistant proteins discovered in Drosophila and humans were reported to protect against protein denaturation and aggregation, offering potential routes to stabilize industrial enzymes or mitigate proteostasis decline in aging and disease.

• Discussion of OpenAI’s release of the full 1.5 B-parameter GPT-2 model and the live demo at talktotransformer.com prompted comparisons between earlier and final versions, with participants debating the gap between “cool tech” and reliable, hype-free performance in generative language systems.