Live data from Hacker News

A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

science.org

21–30 of 821 posts

Re: A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

#23
post #19

I still have a very, very hard time understanding what all of this means. Is there an easy to understand explanation for a room temperature superconductor?

Ever seen one of these high school science demos?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWojYBhvfjM

Now imagine one where you don't have to chill it with liquid nitrogen.

Re: A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

#25
post #19

I still have a very, very hard time understanding what all of this means. Is there an easy to understand explanation for a room temperature superconductor?

It's a conductor of electricity. But super good at it.

i.e. - It has zero resistance to electricity.

Currently, the best superconducting materials we can create have to be chilled to near absolute zero, which means designing them to work in liquid helium baths. This is expensive, and difficult. If a material can superconduct at room temperature, now we're talking usage in general purpose consumer goods.

As for why we want a superconductor? Real cool stuff happens when there's zero resistance to electrical current. I'm sure other people can add on to this, but for an immediate benefit - electricity transmission wouldn't have any losses. Imagine offshore wind turbines that could transmit power to Kansas from the Atlantic. It'd be a big deal.

Re: A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

#26
post #19

I still have a very, very hard time understanding what all of this means. Is there an easy to understand explanation for a room temperature superconductor?

IANAP, but a layman's understanding: the materials that we have available today to conduct electricity at or around room temperatures largely do so in an inefficient manner. As electricity moves through the material, some energy is wasted in the form of ejected heat.

To circumvent this, physicists discovered superconductivity: a state in which a material is a perfectly efficient conductor of electricity. Thus far, to create a superconductive material requires keeping that material at extreme conditions of temperature and pressure.

A room-temperature superconductor is a game-changer because we could get nearly-perfect energy efficient electric conduction without the additional energy overhead it takes to keep the material at such a dense pressure or extreme temperature. Such a material would have wide applications across a variety of disciplines.

Here's a useful article as well: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-2048/26/11/1...

Re: A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

#27

New replication video coming from China https://twitter.com/lereguy/status/1686363900651151360

Can't tell if it's a troll by having a video clip of a video clip

You mean the fact that someone is recording their screen with the microscope video feed at the same time as the magnet in the hand they are placing underneath the scope? It looks like a pretty bog-standard lab video to me.

In addition to being the fastest way that doesn’t require any video editing, I can’t really think of a way to do it that would be more likely to be real.

Re: A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

#28

New replication video coming from China https://twitter.com/lereguy/status/1686363900651151360

Can someone explain how this video shows superconductivity?

There's all kinds of cool examples of this using liquid nitrogen to make a superconductor exhibit the Meissner effect.

The material in question will have these effects at room temperature and pressure.

https://youtu.be/HRLvVkkq5GE?t=53

Re: A room-temperature superconductor? New developments

#29
post #19

I still have a very, very hard time understanding what all of this means. Is there an easy to understand explanation for a room temperature superconductor?

Conductors carry electrical current but have resistance, so you lose power to heat. Superconductors have effectively zero resistance so you don't lose power as they conduct.

We can make superconductors, but they only work at extremely cold temperatures, if they get too hot they turn back into bad conductors. This new material might be able to superconduct at room temperature, which means zero loss conductors without expensive bulky and complicated cooling systems. There are many cool things that can be done with zero loss conductors.

Post reply on HN