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The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

arxiv.org

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Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#91
post #30

There was another in the same day [0], funny. Maybe it really did happen. [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.12037

Two of the authors are the same. A little odd.

I mean- not really? They have developed / synthesized the material, and they collaborated with another lab that had the skills and equipment to conduct and interpret specific experimental techniques and results.

Fairly common, especially in life sciences, and I suspect chemistry and materials science.

Added in edit: This doesn’t make the result any more or less credible; for that, the true test is independent replication of both the synthesis as well as the experimental measurements. But the fact that the two authors published two papers with different groups is orthogonal to whether the result is real / an experimental error / fraud. I so hope its true - but..lets wait for replication and validation by other qualified experts :)

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#92

This 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 However, the most likely thing is they made a mistake and the paper will be withdrawn.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.

People use the same stupid argument when commenting on quantum computer. But in case of QC, one is powerful enough to compute everything and we might not even need two, except for spare. Say a 1000 qubits QC exist, Work that it can do is the sum of all computering power in human history. You cannot even verify if the result is right or not because simply you don't have any classical alternative for that workload.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#93
post #72

I 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 conversion back to motion.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#95
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communication satellites only changed the world because they broadcast to mass produced receivers.

Mass produce as many receivers you want and don't launch the ad-hoc satellite. How useful are the receivers?

I believe receiver use same tech as transmitter. When you have one, you must have the counterpart.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#96
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the biggest scientific discovery of the last hundred years I would say that electronic computers would take take the first spot for me, but I don't deny that room-temperature superconductors would be pretty close to the top.

This (or something derived from it) would be used for power delivery literally everywhere in the world. It might well be bigger in scale and volume than all the computers.

Superconducting power transmission cables solves the power storage problem of renewable energy sources.

We'd just make a global energy grid, and the sunny side powers the dark side.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#97
post #31

After skimming the paper, it reads like a legitimate paper even though I have zero expertise in the area. That it is in Word instead of LaTeX makes it feel a bit less legitimate to me and they could of course always have some error in there setup. The most notable thing to me was that this was done in a thin film where structural defects are supposedly responsible for strain in the material which in turn enables the…

How much is latex used for papers outside of computer science? Medical researchers I know generally used word for their papers.

LaTeX is of course big in math and physics because its math typesetting is unparalleled. And generally it’s just much more convenient to write a lot of math in LaTeX than a wysiwyg editor once you’re proficient. Outside hard sciences it’s probably not common.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#98
post #47

This 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.

"We believe that our new development will be a brand-new historical event that opens a new era for humankind." Hell of a way to end a paper.

Can someone ELI5 to those of us who aren't even sure what a superconductor is?

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#99

This 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.

Scientific discoveries since 1923 include quantum mechanics, just for the first 1920s discovery to come to mind.

Still it'd be a prime new part of "living in the sci-fi future" for me.

Re: The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?

#100
post #47

This 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.

"We believe that our new development will be a brand-new historical event that opens a new era for humankind." Hell of a way to end a paper.

Better than "Further research is warranted" and love "Further research is warranted." I really wish they didn't get that one wrong.
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