- lsneff is considering applying to the Thiel Fellowship to gain time to advance “atomcad,” an in-progress tool for interactive atomic/molecular design, and to begin publishing papers on it.  
- A key technical challenge in atomcad was discussed: ensuring that new atoms are added only at chemically valid bond sites. The proposed solution is to pull the selected molecular structure from the GPU, convert it into an atom-and-bond graph, and validate attachment points on the CPU.  
- NASA’s 2020 NIAC award for a “Lunar Crater Radio Telescope” was shared—an autonomous rover concept that would deploy a wire mesh inside a lunar crater to create a kilometer-scale low-frequency radio dish on the far side of the Moon.  
- fenn highlighted the Russian Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System, an autonomous, nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed underwater drone, calling it “the most worrying thing I’ve learned all year.”  
- kanzure posted a Frontiers in Microbiology paper showing single-cell genomics evidence that marine protists actively consume viruses, expanding understanding of oceanic viral turnover and microbial food webs.