# Key Points from IRC Discussions

• Researchers debated the nature of cognitive enhancement, with some arguing that true nootropics should produce measurable cognitive improvements rather than just euphoria, while others suggested that anything boosting cerebral metabolism could be considered nootropic.

• Kanzure critiqued conventional cognitive assessment methods, arguing that traditional "executive function" tests are based on folk psychology rather than neuroscience, highlighting the challenge of measuring cognitive enhancement effects.

• The group discussed neuroscience research on neuronal action potentials and lipid membrane phase transitions, sharing resources from superkuh.com's library that explore the biophysical mechanisms of neural signaling.

• Participants shared and evaluated educational resources, including a Coursera course on "Drugs and the Brain," demonstrating the community's interest in formal learning about neuropharmacology.

• The conversation touched on genetics and intelligence research, with Kanzure noting that "Almost no genetic polymorphisms have been discovered that are consistently associated with variation of IQ in the normal range" from Nisbett et al.'s work.

• Kanzure shared information about large-scale scientific data projects, including the 1,000 Genomes Project (130 TB), the Human Microbiome Project (10 TB), and CERN's LHD (60 TB per day), highlighting the massive data requirements of modern scientific initiatives.

• A technical security vulnerability in MediaFire's file hosting system was discovered, where authentication tokens could be shared across multiple IP addresses to bypass download restrictions.