- A new “Y-switch” synthetic gene circuit is reported (Nucleic Acids Res. 2024) that uses spring-loaded DNA displacement to give robust, low-noise amplification of DNA/RNA signals, potentially enabling cheap, field-deployable diagnostics.  
- Single-molecule fluorosequencing was highlighted as a next-gen protein-sequencing technology; Austin-based Erisyon won UT’s “Invention of the Year” for the method.  
- Discussion of using living biological systems as bottom-up scaffolds to template inorganic materials at atomic precision, aiming to “grow” functional hardware components.  
- Interest in rugged, off-grid AI hardware: links shared to the hand-cranked ARK device (PrivSov) and a crank-powered cassette player (TapeTalk2) as prototypes for post-collapse local LLM access.  
- WikiReader (offline Wikipedia handheld) was revisited as another reference for resilient knowledge storage.  
- A Nature Chemistry paper (s41589-024-01730-1) was briefly circulated, prompting debate on whether 2-bit MD5-like molecular barcodes are useful and how scaling to higher bit-depths would affect reaction time or reagent cost.  
- Community coordination for EXAG (Experimental Alchemy Gathering) in Lexington, KY mid-November—call for local hosts and meet-ups among the “weirdo network.”