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Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

arxiv.org

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Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#711

Post by Firmwarrior »

n2d4 wrote: post #542
pcrh wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's apparently a patent published in 2020. It surprises me that it never gained attention. edit: KR20210062550A - Mehtod of manufacturing ceramic composite with low resistance including superconductors and the composite thereof - https://patents.google.com/patent/KR20210062550A/en

Search on that site for "room-temperature superconductor," and you'll see why it never gained attention.

Just learned about that the hard way myself, haha.

Some guy got a little traction on Twitter briefly for his room temperature superconductor patent a couple days ago, but when you click his name he's just some crypto nutjob with no science background

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#712

Post by generalizations »

jurgenaut23 wrote: post #700
ChuckMcM wrote: post #129

For those experiencing this type of "black swan, but good" event for the first time, it is helpful to recognize that the human tendency to believe that all future "big events" will be dystopian downers, is statistically unsound. For a while I've kept a list of the things that could be "good" swan events, but to be fair I didn't have "room temperature superconductor on that list" :-) Other things that could happen: 1)…

Unpopular opinion of mine: I think that viable fusion energy would be the final nudge to our demise. Our civilisation is an energy-junkie who happened to stumble on a huge bag full of cash around 1860 and the discovery of oil distillation. Since then, we have been on a hallucinating trip, burning down our house in the process. Viable fusion is essentially another huge pile of cash being deposited right across the str…

I would rather argue that energy consumption is the fundamental metric of the advancement of a civilization - increasing consumption is not of itself bad; whether we know how to clean up after ourselves (or if we're too busy trying not to die out) is a different problem. Limiting our energy consumption is a recipe for civilizational collapse. We have the wolf by the ears, and we can't let go. Best we can do is move forward and try to obtain enough reserve energy and resources to find a way to clean up after ourselves.

With the exception of Avatar, is there any advanced fictional civilization that doesn't use vast amounts of energy in proportion to their tech level? I'd also point to the historical record.

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#713

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

constantcrying wrote: post #598
jjallen wrote: post #432

One somewhat ironic fact of this story is that the rogue former employee perhaps deserves some credit for bringing this thing out into the world. They had been working on this for quite a long time themselves, rightfully so. But now the whole world is working on it and exploring other methods and combinations of materials I would assume (to improve upon the original design and avoid any patents). How long would they…

I think there are multiple big reasons they didn't publish sooner. It is pretty clear that they were convinced, but had insufficient evidence to convince others. Additionally there had recently been a sensational fraud in their field so journals would have been extremely sceptical. It seems to me they were just in the process of constructing a convincing paper, which included convincing tests and could have been acom…

> I think there are multiple big reasons they didn't publish sooner. It is pretty clear that they were convinced, but had insufficient evidence to convince others. Additionally there had recently been a sensational fraud in their field so journals would have been extremely sceptical.

But hasn't it been 24 years since they discovered LK-99? Or am I missing something? If that's true wouldn't it be a tragic shame that it wasn't revealed earlier, so that progress and applications could occur?

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#714

Post by htrp »

penjelly wrote: post #707
jurgenaut23 wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion of mine: I think that viable fusion energy would be the final nudge to our demise. Our civilisation is an energy-junkie who happened to stumble on a huge bag full of cash around 1860 and the discovery of oil distillation. Since then, we have been on a hallucinating trip, burning down our house in the process. Viable fusion is essentially another huge pile of cash being deposited right across the str…

how exactly is oil distillation or its results "burning down our house" and how is that applicable to fusion tech?

> how exactly is oil distillation or its results "burning down our house"

Likely a call out to global warming.

> how is that applicable to fusion tech?

One thing that is never really discussed in terms of fusion energy is what you will do with the heat generated from these processes as there is a theoretical maximum for how much heat the planet can dissipate.

Whether the poster is correct or not, its widely acknowledged that the ability to transition from gravity powered/wind powered energy to coal combustion fueled a great deal of the economic and technological improvements from the 1700s onward (we call it the Industrial Revolution).

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#715

Post by htrp »

moffkalast wrote: post #668
ant6n wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. Perhaps add in some cheap battery technology to the mix of solar power and superconductor, and energy production could become co2 neutral. The creation of a global electricity network perhaps also has some effect on global cooperation. Now we just need reduce the use of fossil fuels (cars, aviation, heating, industry).

Well we'd need cheaper panels for that. Currently they last like what, 30 years and take 3 years to pay off the energy it took to make them? That gives them a roughly a 9x return on investment. You need at least 30-40x to maintain our civilization as-is. Crude oil provides about 100x return. Luckily offshore wind is almost over 30x.

Doesn't matter if you can cover all of the Sahara with panels and get near lossless transmission.

Economies of scale do apply.

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#716

Post by Tade0 »

softwaredoug wrote: post #705

I no nothing about superconductors. And have been largely ignoring this until it seemed more certain. Can someone ELI5 why this matters? What does it enable technologically? Flying cars? Fusion reactors? Magic fix for global warming?

Everything that involves powerful magnets and benefits from making things float - like bearings.

Robots and exoskeletons come to mind.

One of the more bonkers applications would be to wrap Mars around the equator with it, creating an artificial magnetosphere.

Temperatures on Mars are pretty low, but during the Martian summer they get to a nice 20°C there, so currently available superconductors are not up to the task.

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#717

Post by dotnet00 »

jurgenaut23 wrote: post #700
ChuckMcM wrote: post #129

For those experiencing this type of "black swan, but good" event for the first time, it is helpful to recognize that the human tendency to believe that all future "big events" will be dystopian downers, is statistically unsound. For a while I've kept a list of the things that could be "good" swan events, but to be fair I didn't have "room temperature superconductor on that list" :-) Other things that could happen: 1)…

Unpopular opinion of mine: I think that viable fusion energy would be the final nudge to our demise. Our civilisation is an energy-junkie who happened to stumble on a huge bag full of cash around 1860 and the discovery of oil distillation. Since then, we have been on a hallucinating trip, burning down our house in the process. Viable fusion is essentially another huge pile of cash being deposited right across the str…

The only sense in which it would be our demise is that it would be an inflection point in how life is lived, similar to how someone from 200+ years ago would find our current lifestyles to be almost entirely alien.

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#718

Post by tartrate »

trolan wrote: post #709
softwaredoug wrote: post #705

I no nothing about superconductors. And have been largely ignoring this until it seemed more certain. Can someone ELI5 why this matters? What does it enable technologically? Flying cars? Fusion reactors? Magic fix for global warming?

No resistance in wires means limitless power lines, phone lines, batteries charge instantly..

Now how about some practical implications rather than theoretical?

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#719

Post by LargeTomato »

nindalf wrote: post #267
someplaceguy wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would have been more convincing if you had given real past examples rather than speculative future ones :) Although I'm pretty sure there are plenty that many people can think of, so it doesn't really detract much from your point.

Auctions, sanitary towels, retirement, banking, disposable razor, sewing machine, canned food, interchangeable parts, antibiotics, solar cells, postage stamp, light bulb, pencil, air conditioning, insurance, dwarf wheat, spreadsheet, cold chain, double entry book-keeping, S-bend, infant formula, clocks, public key cryptography, passports, batteries, printing press, video games, GPS, contraceptive pill, shipping conta…

The list is sensationalized for attention.

Why is disposable razor on the list but not electricity, computing, refrigeration, metallurgy, microscopy, or eye glasses?

Re: Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

#720

Post by shepardrtc »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #713
constantcrying wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are multiple big reasons they didn't publish sooner. It is pretty clear that they were convinced, but had insufficient evidence to convince others. Additionally there had recently been a sensational fraud in their field so journals would have been extremely sceptical. It seems to me they were just in the process of constructing a convincing paper, which included convincing tests and could have been acom…

> I think there are multiple big reasons they didn't publish sooner. It is pretty clear that they were convinced, but had insufficient evidence to convince others. Additionally there had recently been a sensational fraud in their field so journals would have been extremely sceptical. But hasn't it been 24 years since they discovered LK-99? Or am I missing something? If that's true wouldn't it be a tragic shame that i…

I can't wait to read the history of this material. 24 years... I can only imagine the conversations and drama surrounding it.
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