- Elegen Bio (https://www.elegenbio.com/) was shared as a new commercial source for high-quality synthetic DNA, relevant to open-source bioengineering and DIY biology supply chains.  
- A working “InterPlaNet” protocol has been quietly operating for ~10 years to relay data packets from Mars rovers to orbital satellites and then to Earth, turning the rovers’ low-gain antennas into a mesh network that off-loads high-bandwidth science data to orbiters with high-gain dishes.  
- The Deep Space Network (DSN) is only the final downlink; the InterPlaNet relay network is the actual multi-hop protocol that Curiosity and Perseverance now treat as their primary communication path, relegating direct-to-Earth links to low-rate command-and-control fallbacks.  
- The InterPlanetary Internet Special Interest Group (http://www.ipnsig.org) maintains documentation and standards for this protocol, which was retrofitted onto existing missions after its original dedicated mission was cancelled.  
- Caltech announced a $100 million gift to fund a space-based solar power demonstration project, representing a major capital influx into orbital energy beaming research with implications for long-duration space habitats and high-density terrestrial grids.