LK-99 contains polonium? which has a half-life of hundred and something days.
Lol. Polonium is Po. PO is phosphorus and oxygen.
Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
141–150 of 389 posts
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#142It’s real, it works, the Navy has a linked patent from 2017. The UFOs are a PSYOP.
The Navy does have a patent for a “lead zirconate titanate” super conductor which does sound awfully similar to what’s described in LK-99. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-navy-patent-room-temperature-s...
Ding ding.
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#143Note that there is no signs of phase transition (no jump) and the values below 110K are around reasonable measurement resolution. It may be that they just got the resolution threshold and misinterpret it as SC
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#144Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#145Summary of events so far: The claim: Room temp (~300K) superconductor exists and we got it! The replication attempts: The production method is so poorly documented only a fraction of the samples being made shows any interesting properties. And among those interesting ones, results varies. Very few, if any, attempt actually completely shows the entire spectrum of properties and behaviors of a true superconductor at ro…
Why don't they just share the original sample? At least it could offer an existence proof
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#146Summary of events so far: The claim: Room temp (~300K) superconductor exists and we got it! The replication attempts: The production method is so poorly documented only a fraction of the samples being made shows any interesting properties. And among those interesting ones, results varies. Very few, if any, attempt actually completely shows the entire spectrum of properties and behaviors of a true superconductor at ro…
> Worst case scenario, we got another class of high temp (warmer than liquid nitrogen but cold enough that applications are limited) superconductor but nothing revolutionary since at this point, it is pretty conclusive that there is something interesting with LK-99. I don't think that's the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is that there is actually nothing interesting with LK-99, and everything we've seen…
> I'm actually surprised by the sheer lack of people commenting in the more-or-less-perma-LK-99 threads who show skepticism of the results.
There's plenty of people that are skeptical and making it a point to tell everyone they are skeptical. There's plenty of people that are skeptical that are still engaging on the possibility of it being real because it is interesting to do so. There are plenty of people discussing potential pitfalls in the papers being written and experiments being done.
But ultimately talking to people in the comments on HN is a form of entertainment for most of the people engaging, and skepticism is a lot less entertaining for most people in general than being enthusiastic and engaging on possibilities. It's not surprising that people going somewhere for engagement and entertainment are doing the thing that is more fun to the majority.
I doubt the majority of people that are excited about it would place serious money on it being true - I sure wouldn't. But I am having fun watching the developments, talking about things to the minimal extent I understand, and thinking about the Cool Stuff that would become possible if we were to suddenly have a new room temp ambient pressure semiconductor
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#147This is so reminiscent of what happened after Fleischmann & Pons. Labs attempting to replicate saw this property, or that property, but never the whole, unequivocal picture. Here we have a room temperature superconductor that isn't a superconductor at room temperature. A sample that has no measured Meissner Effect at any temperature. And the authors admit that some (many?) of the samples tested out as semiconductors.…
I read more about F&P and wow, there are striking similarities. The duo probably weren't fraudsters. No intentional deception in their work was ever found, so not like Hendrik Schon. They were basically forced to make their results public by their university, but it was very premature and they should have waited ten years. They were 100% legit, top researchers in the field before all this, and well after the scandal many scientists continued research in avenues initiated by F&P's original experiments (with little success). I can totally see LK-99, once it fails replication in a month, leading to more research but probably not yielding the holy grail.
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#148Summary of events so far: The claim: Room temp (~300K) superconductor exists and we got it! The replication attempts: The production method is so poorly documented only a fraction of the samples being made shows any interesting properties. And among those interesting ones, results varies. Very few, if any, attempt actually completely shows the entire spectrum of properties and behaviors of a true superconductor at ro…
> Worst case scenario, we got another class of high temp (warmer than liquid nitrogen but cold enough that applications are limited) superconductor but nothing revolutionary since at this point, it is pretty conclusive that there is something interesting with LK-99. I don't think that's the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is that there is actually nothing interesting with LK-99, and everything we've seen…
The reason I don't think this is the case is that they have literally been working on this thing for a quarter of a century. While the people involved are not full on superconductor experts, they are also not super stupid and realize that their claim is a huge one.
How could you work on something for years and years and years, make a claim that it is the first room temperature SC and be _totally_ wrong about it. Even if they only worked on it for ten years, I don't think they are totally wrong.
I think what has happened is that they rushed to publish the paper and the reason it has not been replicated is that they don't even know how to reliably make the material yet. This is why the methods to make it are not in the paper -- because they don't even know how to do it.
Remember they were forced to publish this paper by a rogue former employee.
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#149I don’t understand the physics, but it feels like a truly zero resistance conductor would violate some law of thermodynamics or something. Is a superconductor truly zero impedence or just very very very low? Because I’m seeing a lot of these graphs with something like: “0.00001ohm” as the y-axis floor.
Key point, resistance is the real part of impedance. The imaginary part, or inductance and capacitance, are not zero in a superconductor.
Re: Observation of zero resistance above 100 K in Pb₁₀₋ₓCuₓ(PO₄)₆O
#150As a lay person not graduated in STEM subjects, can someone ELIFY how is this research useful to society?