- **Room-temperature superconductor claim**: A new arXiv paper (1801.09376) reports observation of the Meissner effect at room temperature—and up to 200 °C—in single-layer graphene simply by bringing it into contact with alkanes (e.g., octane). The authors have been publishing related results since 2013; the community is skeptical but notes the experiment is trivial to replicate.  
- **Societal restriction of enhancement technologies**: Discussion framed mass vaccination as an example of a technology whose societal impact was positive and unimpeded, while maaku countered with performance-enhancing drugs (HGH, testosterone, stimulants) as cases where social stigma and regulation deliberately restrict availability for general cognitive or physical enhancement.  
- **Exoplanet SETI idea**: A speculative proposal floated that alien civilizations might engineer their planet’s rotation so its year is an exact integer multiple of its day, eliminating leap years and simplifying calendars; fenn pointed out that tidal locking already produces such resonances (Venus, Luna, Mercury) and current exoplanet rotation data are too imprecise to test the hypothesis.  
- **Trivial replication of superconductor experiment**: Participants emphasized that if the graphene-plus-alkane superconductivity claim is real, reproducing it should be as simple as “sticking a pencil in ethane,” highlighting the ultra-low barrier to independent verification.  
- **Regulatory fatigue**: nmz787 and kanzure dismissed a recent meeting as pointless because it devolved into “should we add a section for regulators,” illustrating frustration with bureaucratic overhead in open-science or biohacker initiatives.