# Summary of #hplusroadmap IRC Discussion (Nov 19, 2010)

* Academic researcher Ed Boyden received funding from Paul Allen for the "second generation of optogenetic tools," indicating significant investment in advanced neurotechnology research.

* A discussion about manufacturing in the US highlighted concerns about declining production capabilities, with references to a DARPA director's plan to revitalize American manufacturing and a related PDF framework document.

* Kanzure shared a press release for the "Humanity+ @ Caltech" event, where he was scheduled to give a talk, showing ongoing organization of transhumanist conferences.

* There was discussion about Electroactive Polymers (artificial muscles), with participants noting these technologies were still largely confined to laboratories despite commercial interest.

* A proposal was made to merge the WTA-talk and extropy-chat mailing lists, with observations that many Humanity+ leadership members were not actively participating in the WTA-talk list.

* The Society for Neuroscience conference was mentioned as having an overwhelming 30,000 poster presentations, highlighting the scale and complexity of modern neuroscience research.

* Andre Geim's Nobel Prize for graphene was questioned by a participant as potentially "inappropriate," suggesting some controversy about recognition in materials science innovation.