There's no such thing as bad publicity; how about in science? If the original paper is proved wrong, how on earth could the original authors get any job and respect from their academic colleagues?
Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#22Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#23Now I don’t know what to believe.
Patience. Just that. It will come out, either positive, or negative, but as long as it is inconclusive there is only patience. No need to get jubilant, no need to be jaded or 'cool'. Just wait.
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#24There's no such thing as bad publicity; how about in science? If the original paper is proved wrong, how on earth could the original authors get any job and respect from their academic colleagues?
I'm suspecting it's fraud. In a few months they'll come out and admit they fudged the numbers. I honestly hope not, room temperature superconductors solve a lot of problems, but we've been down this road before.
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#25Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#26I think we'll eventually discover superconductivity isn't possible at STP
What part of physics is it that states this and how do you explain that 'room temperature' just happens to be the range that is related to us and our environment and not to anything particular in physics? Or is it that you suspect that there is an exclusive or relationship between the conditions that allow complex biological life to never have overlap with those that allow superconductivity?
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#27Now I don’t know what to believe.
Why do you need to believe anything at this point. Unless you regularly dance at the bleeding edge of material science, either sit back and enjoy the show, or change the channel and watch something else.
Yeah, with things like these, I prefer the watch something else option. It doesn't matter how many of these arxiv papers and dubious twitter videos I look at, I still won't know the answer until there's a scientific consensus. Until then, I see no point in investing any effort. I'm not a physicist. There's no way this information will materially affect my life in the next several years. And there's a pretty huge chance it will never affect my life at all(if it disappears).
It is fun to watch the absolute torrent of confirmation bias and people changing their minds all the time in the comments though. Must be exhausting to constantly wax and wane like that.
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#28There's no such thing as bad publicity; how about in science? If the original paper is proved wrong, how on earth could the original authors get any job and respect from their academic colleagues?
Anyone who is afraid to be wrong shouldn’t entertain the notion of becoming a scientist.
If it turns out they’re wrong, then they will likely do a follow up paper that explains what their mistakes were. No biggy. It’s just a couple of preprints, after all, and it’s widely believed that it was pushed out without all of the authors’ consent in the first place. It won’t leave them with lasting reputational damage from their peers, though it may place slightly more scrutiny on their outputs at a later point.
They may get ridicule from the people who took their paper at face value without noting the informality of the format, the incomplete studies performed on the sample, the almost-clear methodology etc. But those people aren’t scientists - all of the scientists who have discussed this have assumed from day one that it is likely an error, and perhaps toyed around in case their assumption is wrong.
To have reputational damage, they’d need to refuse to retract their work, refuse to elaborate further, claim they invented room temperature superconductors without sufficient proof, then attack anyone who questions them.
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#29There's no such thing as bad publicity; how about in science? If the original paper is proved wrong, how on earth could the original authors get any job and respect from their academic colleagues?
I'm suspecting it's fraud. In a few months they'll come out and admit they fudged the numbers. I honestly hope not, room temperature superconductors solve a lot of problems, but we've been down this road before.
still, one paper said it had near-zero resistance at 110K. Above the temperature of liquid nitrogen. so, uh... big if true
Re: Absence of superconductivity in LK-99 at ambient conditions
#30Now I don’t know what to believe.
Why do you need to believe anything at this point. Unless you regularly dance at the bleeding edge of material science, either sit back and enjoy the show, or change the channel and watch something else.
Conversely, why wouldn't someone believe something if there are no consequences to being wrong?
As you say, unless you regularly dance at the bleeding edge of material science, nothing you believe really matters, so why not jump in with both feet?