# Key Points from #hplusroadmap IRC Log (Sept 1, 2009)

* Discussion about standardizing research formats and citations, with BibTeX identified as a suitable standard citation format that dominates reference management software import formats.

* Debate about representing manufacturing instructions in software, with participants discussing whether assembly, cutting, gluing, and other manufacturing operations should be represented as object methods or functions.

* Development work on SKDB (an open-source hardware/manufacturing database) focused on tracking connection graphs between parts and implementing colored interface arrows in the GUI.

* Conversation about space exploration challenges, particularly the cost of radiation shielding for Mars missions, with suggestions to build shielding in orbit using materials from comets, the Moon, or repurposing existing space station components.

* Discussion of peptide microarrays for testing peptide affinity and potentially synthesizing antibodies, with consideration of using NPPOC protected peptosynthesis as an easier alternative to DNA synthesis.

* Mention of MIT's Tangible Media Group's "Tangible Bits" vision for Human-Computer Interaction, noting that FabLab is technically part of the MIT Media Lab.