The dual Steenrod algebra has a canonical subalgebra isomorphic to the homology of the Brown-Peterson spectrum. We will construct a secondary operation in mod-2 homology and show that this canonical subalgebra is not closed under it. This allows us to conclude that the 2-primary Brown-Peterson spectrum does not admit the structure of an E_n-algebra for any n greater than or equal to 12, answering a question of May in the negative.
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