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A superconductor claim blew up online. Science has punctured it

washingtonpost.com

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Re: A superconductor claim blew up online. Science has punctured it

#12

Post by infogulch »

Proof that science works Just Fine using simple tools like arxiv and social media. Journals are dead. Their invention was scientifically bankrupt, their existence has bred the very human biases and social conflicts that science was supposed to eliminate, and their raison d'être is rendered moot by technology. Good riddance. Long live the scientific method.

Re: A superconductor claim blew up online. Science has punctured it

#16

Post by ayakang31415 »

Very poorly presented piece of journalism. No one should and could expect a rigorous scientific examination on a poorly written paper that unfortunately had to be rushed out onto arxiv because Kwon who got fired from the research center leaked their findings prematurely without any consent from the contributors (I heard that he will be facing disciplinary action from Korea university). I still feel like we need to wait for a peer-reviewed paper that they are working on to get published at APL material.

Re: A superconductor claim blew up online. Science has punctured it

#18

Post by ajross »

progrus wrote: post #11

No, “science” has done no such thing. A bunch of theoretical-science types have been putting out PR as fast as possible, and trying to claim that it’s over. The whole thing looks very corrupt.

I'm amazed how invested some people are in this.

I'm sorry, but skepticism isn't "corrupt". 99 times out of 100, it's right. No one is being suppressed here. Anyone with even a hint of a positive result goes viral on twitter instantly. But the results just aren't there. And yeah, the crufty theoreticians are haw-haw-hawing a little (cold fusion -style, I guess) at the people who jumped on the possibility without really thinking through the implications.

But the theoreticians were right about cold fusion too. Look, if LK-99 is real then you don't need a theoreticians blessing. The problem is that *it's not real*, at least not yet, and you're demanding the theoreticians hold their opinions because it upsets you that they think you're wrong.

Re: A superconductor claim blew up online. Science has punctured it

#19

Post by ununoctium87 »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #2

I think the ... hoo-ha ... online is going to have at least one positive effect - a greater interest in and funding of basic research. The Western world could double its science budget tomorrow and not notice the line item cost, and should probably double it's education budget while we are there (which we would notice but that's kind of the point). We don't know where the next break through will come from, but well e…

The `votes per dollar` return on science spending is too low, unfortunately :(

Re: A superconductor claim blew up online. Science has punctured it

#20

Post by Turskarama »

infogulch wrote: post #12

Proof that science works Just Fine using simple tools like arxiv and social media. Journals are dead. Their invention was scientifically bankrupt, their existence has bred the very human biases and social conflicts that science was supposed to eliminate, and their raison d'être is rendered moot by technology. Good riddance. Long live the scientific method.

Hardly, it only worked in this case because of how high profile it was. You cannot use the "submit to arxiv, wait for 100 labs to verify" model for anything less exciting than room temperature superconductors.
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