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Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

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Re: Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

#221
post #10

Can someone explain why this is a big deal? The author cites that it doesn't need an explanation, but I definitely need one lol.

Conduct electricity with zero resistance. This has been possible at cryogenic temperatures (powers supermagnets, MRI etc) but running at room temperature _and pressure_ means in theory that you don’t need expensive support machinery. Has been the holy grail for the field. If true, this specific case is only low current, but demonstrates such a thing is possible - almost certainly winning an instant Nobel Prize.

Also, the clock speed of CPUs are limited by resistance and heat.

Both of those go to zero. We may see 100ghz CPUs and 3D stacked cpus with almost no need for cooling.

Re: Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

#223

I’m a noob when it comes to SC. Sorry to ask this question here and hope someone could explain. I can’t get any answer from Google. What is the excitement around seeing floating magnets? My understanding is that we can have 2 regular magnets float if position them in opposite polarity, right?

No. It is impossible for an ordinary magnet to float freely over any number of other stationary ordinary magnets.

Re: Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

#225

Can someone ELI5 if the video with the magnet levitating is supposed prove something? Is this visual result only possible with superconductors? If so, why?

Magnets can also levitate over other magnets, so it's not only possible with superconductors. But it does happen with superconductors. The magnet will induce a current in the superconductor, which creates a magnetic field, which repels the magnet.

Re: Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

#226

Can someone explain why this is a big deal? The author cites that it doesn't need an explanation, but I definitely need one lol.

There are all sorts of neat things that you can do with superconductors now (toroidal inductor batteries, basically anything that would benefit from super strong coils like motors and magnets, novel electronics...) with the caveat that they are hilariously expensive to fabricate, and need a hilariously expensive cryogenic system built around them.

The cherry on top is that the materials and fabrication for this material seem relatively cheap.

Re: Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

#228
post #158

LinkedIn post from one the authors: https://twitter.com/8teapi/status/1684571913908293633

That's extremely hilarious if real. He basically just told the guys at the Max Plank institute they're lazy theoreticians that don't understand chemistry and can't be bothered to put in the work like he has. (over 100 attempts at making this!)

This is a great kind of rivalry between theory folks and applied folks. When good natured it can be a lot of fun. It’s also important to have these two kinds of groups annoyed with each other poking holes in each others methods.

Re: Room temperature, ambient pressure superconductivity – this time for real?

#230
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conduct electricity with zero resistance. This has been possible at cryogenic temperatures (powers supermagnets, MRI etc) but running at room temperature _and pressure_ means in theory that you don’t need expensive support machinery. Has been the holy grail for the field. If true, this specific case is only low current, but demonstrates such a thing is possible - almost certainly winning an instant Nobel Prize.

Also, the clock speed of CPUs are limited by resistance and heat. Both of those go to zero. We may see 100ghz CPUs and 3D stacked cpus with almost no need for cooling.

Wouldn’t you still get heat from current switching back and forth and transistors changing polarity?
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