Here’s what’s different from last time:

  • it’s more like “room temperature” than room temperature, the paper says 250K which is -23 C.

  • it has already replicated, with two separate labs in China confirming the results.

  • The chemical difference appears to be that this thing has sulphur where LK-99 did not.

  • KrasnaiaZvezda
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    6 months ago

    The nice thing about this, if it’s true, obviously, isn’t even so much about the SC they found but the possibiliy of a true room temperature SC with a similar chemical makeup. It would be quite nice if we can have a good SC for power transmission, or anything else really, by the end of the year.

    I wonder how this could change the world.

  • blakeus12 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    even though it isn’t exactly room temperature, 250K is warm enough to be chilled by dry ice, which is not that hard to come by. if this is true this is a huge breakthrough that will change the world forever. please, god, let it be true.

  • Flamingoaks
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    6 months ago

    see a lot of people here talking about how its not really high temperature or being skeptical, but i would just like to point out that it doesnt matter, ceramic type superconductors with similar properties have been known about for decades and nothing has ever been done with them because they just arent useful for the things that metallic super conductors are used for, u cant make a cable out of this stuff and even if u could it would be too brittle to use, in the one picture of lk-99 that gets circulated everywhere u know their big media showcase picture they couldnt even make a full puck of it its that fucking brittle. IF this is true then it still is an interesting discovery that could lead to something but this is by no means the big super conductor breakthru that so many people are presenting it as, this aint the holy grail the holy grail would be this but metallic.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      6 months ago

      That’s a good point, the properties of the material definitely limit the applications.

  • DamarcusArt
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    6 months ago

    I’ve worked in places with walk in freezers before, that’s technically a room.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      6 months ago

      There are tons of useful applications for superconductors that are impractical to do currently. Some examples, include cheap magnetic levitation, fusion containment, computing, power transmission, etc. Finding a superconductor that works at roughly room temperature and ambient pressure has been the holy grail in material science for a little while now. Basically, it would be a huge breakthrough that could allow a lot of new tech we can’t currently make.

    • Flamingoaks
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      6 months ago

      nothing, ceramic super conductors that operate at “high” temperature have been known about for decades this one has a particularly “high” temperature but its not significantly higher such that it would make a difference. people care about super conductors because they are conductors aka they wanna make cables out of them and u cant make a cable out of ceramic, and this is a ceramic material. i mean its so brittle they couldnt even make a full puck of it for their big headline picture.

  • qwename
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    6 months ago

    I would suggest not posting research papers as news, especially regarding superconductors which was controversial topic last year. I found a Chinese article that references this tweet, which I assume is where you got your post from:

    The paper’s title uses “Possible Meissner effect near room temperature”, which does not automatically translate into the sensationalist title “room-temperature superconductor”.

    Some of the authors of this paper have responded to questions on Zhihu (something like Chinese Quora) here: https://www.zhihu.com/question/637763289 https://www.zhihu.com/question/637763424

    From what I gathered this paper is a milestone on the road to a “near room temperature superconductor”, and there is optimism but more work needs to be done.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆OP
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      6 months ago

      I think it’s still news worthy. I realize there’s a lot of hype around the subject, but it looks like it has been replicated by two separate labs now.

  • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Hopefully it isn’t like the Korean one.

    But it’s coming out of China and china made a load of fake papers about making lk99 to be a superconductor at room temp so I’m not holding my breath.

    • DamarcusArt
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      6 months ago

      No, the west published a bunch of sensationalist news articles about it and then Chinese scientists had to correct them. Science journalist rarely know anything about the topic they are reporting on, and their primary job is to sell newspapers (or clicks) so they sensationalize everything.