Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 363 posts

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#141

Post by iamshs »

anonylizard wrote: post #114
iamshs wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see from US academics on Twitter are debates about this and that. Borderline annoying. This is the first result from mighty US capitalist machine meanwhile 3 Chinese labs have published pre prints and Russian replicated it in her kitchen.

This, its utterly shameful. Hot takes here, hot takes there, skepticism here, tell people to calm down there. Yet not a single replication! China has gone through multiple failed and successful replications so far. And the first US replication is from an amateur. If LK-99 works out, expect some congressmen to use this as a bludgeoning tool against the state of US public science.

They couldn't even source Phosphorus!

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#142

Post by yorwba »

anonylizard wrote: post #114
iamshs wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I see from US academics on Twitter are debates about this and that. Borderline annoying. This is the first result from mighty US capitalist machine meanwhile 3 Chinese labs have published pre prints and Russian replicated it in her kitchen.

This, its utterly shameful. Hot takes here, hot takes there, skepticism here, tell people to calm down there. Yet not a single replication! China has gone through multiple failed and successful replications so far. And the first US replication is from an amateur. If LK-99 works out, expect some congressmen to use this as a bludgeoning tool against the state of US public science.

Nanjing University physics professor Wen Haihu said in an interview with The Paper that the news was extremely likely to be false and they only assigned a student to it because many groups internationally were working on replications https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24024641

"A researcher from the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) declined to comment on LK-99, telling the Post that even taking the issue seriously would be ridiculous." https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3229778/coul... (It's unclear to me whether this was before or after the HUST team published their video.)

I don't think it's so much "China good at science, everyone else shamefully bad," but that some institutions (including in China) are more risk-averse, because labs who're already working on something they expect to succeed are less likely to benefit from dropping it to try something unproven.

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#143

Post by varjag »

baq wrote: post #97
yxhuvud wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. You still need access to red phosphorous which is not all that easy to get hold of.

the 1000 C furnace is nothing to sneeze at either.

These are rather common. Often used in metalworking for steel hardening.

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#144

Post by epups »

sanxiyn wrote: post #109
iamshs wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her rock actually floats. Did it all in the kitchen too. She should rightly be credited as first one.

More than that, she calculated how high it will float, and how height will depend on temperature, before starting the experiment, and confirmed all her predictions.

Wow, that's hugely impressive! Where can I find more info about this? Is it all on twitter?

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#145

Post by timeon »

ssijak wrote: post #12
gabesullice wrote: post #2

Nitter: https://nitter.net/andrewmccalip/status/1687405505604734978#...

pardon my ignorance but why are people posting nitter links every time, what is wrong with original twitter urls?

I do not have account. Even if Twitter links loads (which is not always the case) - there are no comments/thread.

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#146

Post by bglazer »

huijzer wrote: post #127
bglazer wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope you can just put a preprint out. Like it or not, academic labs are probably busy doing things like checking their data and doing multiple replicates varying conditions. You know, science.

Yes, exactly. And getting approvals from three layers of management. You know, science. I'm pushing back against academia because I think the system is pretty much a mess. Academics believe that we got all the nice technological innovation because of academia. I think it is despite academia. Most money going there is just wasted on writing not what you think is right but what you think will be published, waiting for…

I’m in an academic lab right now. I have never once had to get approval from three levels of management to do any experiment, nor have I ever heard of anyone having to do that. I’m not even sure who would be three levels of “management” above me.

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#147

Post by xvector »

sashank_1509 wrote: post #137
DarmokJalad1701 wrote: post #130

The humility is refreshing, compared to anime girl. Also, the photos/videos are not shot using a potato.

Exactly, that Russian anime girl shud not be getting any credit, I don’t say this because of her anonymity but because of her absolute refusal to take a video or do absolutely anything that can make outsiders trust her claims.

I don't understand why she would be like this. Why would anyone hold back the production process for a material that could change humanity forever?

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#148

Post by DarmokJalad1701 »

blackkettle wrote: post #120
wiz21c wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we really care if they confirm it in a week or two ? Are we on a hurry ? I don't know anything bout supraconductors but given the number of failing attempts to repicalte (and the number succeeding), I would not be suprised if it'd take quite some time before we can be certain. Moreover, we'll need a consensus among all the people who understand the subject. So, a week or even a month won't make any difference. We'…

My point was not actually about the ultimate result of replication. This guy undoubtably performed an indirect marketing coup for his company by engaging competently on this tangentially related topic and then following through. In my experience though, if he had made any effort to link those two things prior to doing this - e.g. by proposing this as an internally sponsored marketing stunt - it would probably have be…

Eh, I have met the CEO of Varda. They are very much a startup and have that startup energy. One of the founders of Varda has been very vocally supportive of this on Twitter as well.

Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99

#149

Post by gmerc »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #76
gmerc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon is turning his platform to pay for misinformation and rage baiting. No need to support that even passively.

You are not wrong. I certainly was no fan of the old twitter’s ultra woke circle jerk and bullyism but you could at least mostly ignore it and the verified accounts were actual verified people. Today the misinformation and shitposting crap is impossible to avoid, the top comments are invariably random 8 dollar people (?) that add little to the discussion and porn bots / onlyfans all over the place. On top of that it…

70% of the payouts in the top tier (10 people) go to Elon
Post reply on HN