Can you make a practical battery with such a superconductor?
The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
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Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#102Could someone explain why is this world changing?
Superconductors change every assumption about how we harness electricity and magnetism. Beyond reducing the cost of electricity transmission, they enable all sorts of fascinating applications:
- They enable low cost, continuous, passively-stable magnetic levitation. Superconductors could replace ball bearings in many applications.
- They enable permanent magnets that are far stronger than any we make from conventional magnetic materials. For example, motors tend to run at high speed and low torque, so as to minimize heat generated from current in the copper windings. Superconducting direct-drive motors could allow for ultra-high-torque actuators without any need for gearing, and with minimal heat generation or losses. So superconducting electromagnets could replace everything from electric motors to hydraulic pistons to simple springs.
- Superconductors allow for very sensitive antennas and magnetic field sensors, allowing for near-field detection of very small signals (such as from neurons firing in the brain). There is a lot of impressive technology that only exists inside research labs where a generous supply of cryogenic liquids are always on hand. Those could make their way into mass-market products.
That's just a very short list.
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#103This is huge. I am stunned and advise withholding judgment until further evidence arrives.
My second thought, how does it respond to magnetic fields?
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#104This is an unreviewed preprint coming out of South Korea. If it’s reproducible it would be the biggest scientific discovery of the last hundred years. It will literally reshape the world. However, the most likely thing is they made a mistake and the paper will be withdrawn. But imagine if it’s true.
To change the world it has to be manufacturable at scale, stable, etc.
Not necessarily. If this material is legit, this proves that room temperature superconductors can exist. If it works in this material, others might also work. Eventually it may lead to a material that can be manufactured cheaply enough. The potential monetary savings of such a material is so great, that you'll see billions flow into materials research.
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#105I see lots of comments saying this is a huge deal if true. Can I ask... well, why? What can we do/make with this?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_ene... Basically really high density batteries that work efficiently forever, zero friction bearings via levitation, zero resistance long haul energy transport, and an MRI you can probably run on household current. Plus maximally efficient (not perfect efficiency just the best we could theoretically practically get) energy storage, transport, generation, and co…
(don't forget super CPUs)
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#106This is an unreviewed preprint coming out of South Korea. If it’s reproducible it would be the biggest scientific discovery of the last hundred years. It will literally reshape the world. However, the most likely thing is they made a mistake and the paper will be withdrawn. But imagine if it’s true.
Even if we found the perfect material, where it was easy and cheap to create long strong wires for power transmission as well as semiconductor-scale nano wires, we'd be gaining something like (wild ass guess) 20% gain in efficiency. 20% would be nice but would it really beat the last hundred years of discoveries? I don't think so, especially with digital tech's profound world-reshaping continuing to accelerate.
Don't superconducting magnets make fusion much easier?
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#107The Sagan standard is the adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (a concept abbreviated as ECREE). But one can hope such evidence is forthcoming. And if it is, then short the oil majors.
superconductivity isn't really "extraordinary" though, the evidence to tell whether superconductivity is happening is relatively mundane.
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#108The Sagan standard is the adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (a concept abbreviated as ECREE). But one can hope such evidence is forthcoming. And if it is, then short the oil majors.
Or go long—such a breakthrough would radically increase demand for energy.
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#109Could someone explain why is this world changing?
Superconductors are basically perfectly conductive wire. Wires that transfer 100% of power over arbitrary distances and that don't heat up. Obviously there are limits, you can't put arbitrary power over a hair thin filament but as long as you're under that limit you get perfect efficiency. MRI machines can be made a lot simpler as you no longer need to use liquid nitrogen to cool the superconductors. MRI machines cou…
What kind of energy density could we get using it for energy storage?
Maybe it’s competitive with batteries if you don’t need any cooling?
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#110The graphs on page 3 are exactly what you would expect with a real superconductor. The current/voltage/temp relationship especially. In fact I don't see how you get graphs that look like that unless you either created a superconductor or are just blatantly making up the data. This could be enormous.
My first thought was “I really hope this is real and not someone having left the data collection software in simulation mode.” If this reproduces, it’s historic. If it doesn’t, it’s either cold fusion or faster-than-light neutrinos.