I keep reading that room temperature super-conduction will revolutionize so many fields. Is there a good summary of which fields, and how, somewhere?
Anything involving electricity or magnetic fields.
Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
261–270 of 363 posts
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#262Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#263This makes me extremely bullish about Varda Space, they have engineers of high quality and expertise that they could do a decent replication very quickly (if they got access to raw materials earlier, they might have been first to do so, comparable with the Chinese Groups) while working on their off time (from what I’ve seen of their twitter) and not a single big academic lab has managed to complete any sort of replic…
It's really disappointing that no other US lab has engaged with the public in the same manner. Regardless of the outcome, I think seeing things get built and experimented with in mostly real-time is a massive source of inspiration.
The National Labs have to be a lot more careful with putting out potentially incorrect results due to their notoriety, being public funded and the public's lack of respect for the trial and error involved in the scientific process.
So they'll quietly slog away trying and retrying experiments, checking and rechecking their data before finally saying anything.
As we saw with other previous big things, like the first gravitational wave detection, they took some time to make sure that they were right.
I think that if it turns out to be real and national lab experiments prove that out, we'll be hearing rumors circulating within the field some time before an official announcement, just like how there were rumors about LIGO's detection circulating for a month before the announcement.
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're joking, I'd 100% assume it, except that I ran into some truly bizarre US patriotism while trying to follow McCalip's updates a few days ago - last relevant one I could find was 'materials coming tomorrow' on 27th, but then I couldn't find anything about using them or any update. Just a decent into people tweeting (in thread) about how great America is, the best country, etc. Really surreal. Think it wa…
He’s replicating a cutting edge material science in his garage. People are celebrating the optimistic spirit of Americans. The indomitable will that this country encourages and the sense that anything is possible if you’re ambitious and smart enough to pull it off.
lmao
(a) it's an industrial lab. (b) if there's any optimism to be commended, it's that of the South Korean researchers who worked on this on-off for ~20 years.
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is simply what post-peer-review looks like. Instead of a few anonymous peer reviews, you get the entire planet to replicate. Moment you get something meaningful, publish it on arxiv. Quantity, not quality is king. Anomalies are drowned out by large samples. Questionable methods get mass debated in public. Scientists are dependent on public funding, why squander the biggest moment in pop science for literal decad…
There is a new claim or two of room-temperature superconductors published on Arxiv every year: https://nitter.net/peternemes/status/1684483863999827973#m ... and yet this is the only one that sets the Twitters afire. The reaction I've seen from most of the scientists has been pretty negative on the papers. The originals aren't strong papers. The chemistry has issues: https://nitter.net/Robert_Palgrave/status/16854501…
I’m not sure I understand your point. Are you trying to say that people shouldn’t be paying attention to this? I would personally be horrified if I found out that the paper on the synthesis of a room temperature superconductor went through the normal peer review process instead of letting the world know they discovered something huge.
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hype is more warranted here because I think material and physics scientists are excited and publicly and clearly skeptical. There is a wider knowledge that this may be nothing or somewhere in between. The rollercoaster following the developments is why the wider public is enjoying following it as science entertainment. On Twitter it seems like crypto bros are trying to scam with a LK-99 coin. AI/ML crowd is ponde…
a decent crypto strat is to buy a coin named after a major news event asap, then sell within a day
It's a decent strat right up until the greater fool learns their lesson and leaves. Then you become the greatest fool.
The only way to reliably succeed at this is to take steps to ensure the existence of a greater fool. We call that "fraud."
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. What I don't understand is the gatekeeping. Why would the actions of outsiders have any bearing on "real" research? Are they worried that grant money will get redirected toward shallower, more glamorous groups?
I think the gatekeeping is relevant because almost every time in recent years that the general completely unvetted, often actively ignorant public has gotten an in on the scientific/R&D process, it has been a disaster for the field. NASA can't take risks and seriously innovate anymore because even intentional explosions will be passed off as failures, we all experienced the sheer madness of the covid years, similarly…
> Not having some amount of gatekeeping just lowers the bar too much and introduces so much more noise.
I can see how this would be a very controversial subject. Discouraging scientific participation? That's a tough pill to swallow without a lot of justification.
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
What matters is the discovery of new things that are true, that we can do engineering with. Publication by youtube & arxiv doesn't have to be oriented at public consumption - it works just as well when it's by-researchers, for-researchers. Except without gatekeeping, people like McCalip can participate too. Who cares who's sitting on the sidelines? In post-peer-review, industry-funded academics rush a paper to a prep…
Agreed. What I don't understand is the gatekeeping. Why would the actions of outsiders have any bearing on "real" research? Are they worried that grant money will get redirected toward shallower, more glamorous groups?
My personal opinion/reaction likely isn't going to affect anyone's grant status. I'm just a random asshole. But there are less random assholes whose opinion might count. If someone sounding authoritative, but is just a random asshole like me, shits on this work on social media it might affect a group's grant status if it taints the opinion of someone holding the purse strings.
So I don't think asking about credentials or asking about references is gatekeeping. It's putting a statement into context. If I as a random asshole say "this isn't a superconductor" you as a reader should want to know where I'm getting that opinion from rather than just taking my statement at face value.
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you saying Europeans dont have any national pride?
I think you would be hard pressed to find any Euro seriously and non-ironically proclaiming their country the best in the world. Then again, it's not unheard of. It just sounds stupid here, because even when all of us combine we only ever so slightly pass the "regional power" mark. And we know it.
Have you met any Europeans?
Italians are convinced that Italy is the center of the world, with the best food, home of Rome, etc.
French are convinced that France is the center of the world, with the best food, home of Democracy, etc.
The British are convinced that Britain is the center of the world...although maybe not so convinced of the food :-P.
Germans, same thing.
Portugese same thing, but it's the "secret" version of Spain with better wine, better food, better beaches, etc.
Everybody has national pride. That's a good thing. You should be proud of the place where you live because it means you'll take care of it and wont' trash it.
Re: Andrew McCalip demonstrates synthesis of LK99
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Of course, this is all Varda IP as they’re in California and anything a head of research performs that generates IP is owned by the employer.
Is that a law in California? My understanding of the labor law is that California protects employees, so that if they sign a contract assigning IP to the company (which is almost a sure bet today, but not a law afaik- please correct me otherwise) they are actually protected such that it only applies if:
- using company resources, such as time, hardware, or office space, unless otherwise stated.
Clearly the case here, but my understanding of this law doesn’t align with how you described it.