This is almost certainly a sham. I had hopes before watching the videos, but the only effects shown are normal paramagnetism (from the copper substrate) and diamagnetism (pyrolytic graphite).
Copper is diamagnetic, not paramagnetic
The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
841–850 of 906 posts
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#842Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily. While obviously it would be nice to not have to cool superconductors, it's not much of a technical challenge. Much more relevant is the strength of the magnets - fusion reactors need very strong magnets which is why they use superconductors, but there is still a limit to how strong they can be made. Unfortunately the higher temperature a material becomes a superconductor, typically the less able it i…
Ah interesting, thank you! Maybe I can hope that the discovery leads to further novelty then :) Maybe the same effect can occur in lower temperature superconductors as well. I guess there's a sweet spot for ease of construction, field strength, and temperature.
If you look at the 2013 design of the ARC fusion reactor concept (a high field tokamak), most of the mass of the reactor is the steel structure needed to resist the JxB forces from the magnets. This will be needed even if the magnets are made of room temperature resublimated unobtainium.
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#843Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It was supposed to bring us electricity too cheap to meter, but it's actually the most expensive form of generation that anyone bothers to build. Hardly, coal is much more expensive if you price in the externalities. We just pretend they don't exist for coal, and we staple anything that moves to nuclear. Coal kills 25 people per TWh generated, and the actuarial cost of a death is about $10M as used by the nuclear i…
Can you give me an example of a nuclear power station that was built entirely without taxpayer subsidy by a private company, and manages to sell electricity to the grid cheaply and make a profit?
> Can you give me an example of a nuclear power station that was built entirely without taxpayer subsidy by a private company, and manages to sell electricity to the grid cheaply and make a profit?
Why is that a goal? Zero-carbon electricity is a goal, so that we don't all sink. Profit isn't. If ever there were a job for taxpayer dollars, IMO, this is it.
"Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#844Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#845I generally understand that superconductivity under normal human conditions is desirable, but could someone summarize what this material might be used for near-term, and what this might lead to? If this is comparable to the development of the transistor, what are the analogous vacuum tubes that I am living with today?
If it works as advertised, it would make a fantastic toy. Various different types of levitating toys would now be possible that would have previously required liquid nitrogen on hand. A lot of CEOs are probably going to have very pretty and novel floating desk ornaments. Not really a great toy for children or general consumption due to the lead content, though. For all of the big use cases people mostly talk about wh…
Thank you!
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#846Earlier quoted context omitted.
One obvious application: your family doctor will have an MRI machine in her office, same for all physio clinics
What are the failure modes for a superconductor MRI? Could it cause a resonance cascade?
They are already superconducting and using liquid helium to cool. They have failure modes of spilling gas out into the room (patient and operators have to evacuate.)
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#847Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but the point is that they hardly caused a revolution in energy storage. If fuel cells didn't exist, for the average person life would be exactly the same. Revolutionary tech does change normal peoples lives, and sometimes very rapidly, but a lot of stuff that looks revolutionary just kind of never works out. I'd say nuclear power is probably the prime example of this. It was supposed to bring us electricity to…
> It was supposed to bring us electricity too cheap to meter, but it's actually the most expensive form of generation that anyone bothers to build. That's not a technical issue though. Cost efficiency of nuclear energy has actually declined over time...which, unless science is devolving, should tell you something hinky is happening.
It's part of a larger trend of eroding competence at civic infrastructure scale construction, but also specific to nuclear we've found repeatedly that construction and decommissioning costs and schedules were wildly optimistic.
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#848Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lead is used everywhere. Not in paint anymore but you can buy lead weights at hardware stores. Don't grind it up and put it in your muni water supply, but it's a household substance that is harmful if ingested, like many others.
another example, you can still buy lead based solder, even at a local hardware store.
Is lead based solder not standard? (I've never soldered.)
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#849Earlier quoted context omitted.
The changes introduced by discovery of fire were very gradual. No Internet, no written language at all: any innovation back then could only spread as quickly as humans walked, and would temporarily stop at every significant geographic barrier such as sea. Compared to the discovery of fire, the changes from room temperature superconductors would be a flash fire.
I totally missed the impact of the internet, you are absolutely correct. Something else that I just noticed buried in the paper is that it can be readily deposited onto a substrate (search for UNIVAC in the paper, page 4). That's an incredibly big deal.
For the idiots in the room (me), could you explain why that’s a big deal? Does that make the material more robust and therefore usable in harsher environments?
Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?
#850Mental note: "If true then" comments skip "true?" part yet add to the momentum of this story. The ratio tells me not true. We'll see how this ages.
It seems to be aging well, since prediction markets are in the 20% range and parent comment is getting down voted/s