# Key Points from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussion

• Participants proposed calculating and publicizing the taxpayer cost of paywalled research papers, estimating some papers cost "$41,341 in tax dollars" while remaining inaccessible to the public, highlighting the economic inefficiency of scientific publishing.

• The group criticized academia's emphasis on novelty over reproducibility, noting scientists avoid repeating experiments because it "would kill their career," creating systemic issues in scientific progress.

• A speculative discussion explored genetically modifying human hair follicles and nail cells to produce useful compounds, with debate about technical challenges including immune rejection issues and the higher cell turnover rate in skin.

• Researchers shared a breakthrough study where functional human liver tissue was created from iPSC-derived organ buds and successfully implanted in mice, with discussion of vascularization techniques for tissue engineering.

• The conversation addressed issues with medical implant technologies, particularly how permanent ports face biofilm contamination problems, while exploring alternatives for continuous biological monitoring.

• Participants discussed ARM processor virtualization capabilities, noting "KVM ARM will only work for ARMv7a processors with virtualization extensions," suggesting possibilities for running different operating systems on mobile devices.

• There was criticism of "hackathon scams" where companies exploit programmers to develop for their APIs without proper compensation or ownership rights, and of health data business models focused on "recurring revenue" rather than improving health outcomes.