This could end up being a REALLY BIG FUCKING DEAL !!!!!!!!


Tom's Hardware

Superconductor Breakthrough Replicated, Twice, in Preliminary Testing

Francisco Pires
Tue, August 1, 2023 at 12:13 PM EDT

Humanity may be in the throes of another breakthrough that's every bit as impactful as the invention of the transistor and the advent (and eventual vindication) of quantum computing. LK-99, as it's been named, is a new compound that researchers believe will enable the fabrication of room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors. Initially published by a Korean team last Friday, frantic work is underway throughout the research world to validate the paper's claims. For now, two separate sources have already provided preliminary confirmations that this might actually be the real thing - Chinese researchers have even posted video proof. Strap in; this is a maglev-powered, superconducting ride.

Superconductors, a wild category of compounds that can conduct electricity without any losses, have been a metaphorical goose chase for years now, with multiple research teams claiming (and then retracting) papers and announcements of its achievement. The reason is simple: Few things come close to the potential of an actual superconductor discovery in terms of what it can do for humanity's current and future technology. Imagine if your 16-core mainstream CPU (which likely requires a competent watercooling solution to avoid incinerating itself) operated without power losses - no current leakage, no electricity waste in the form of heat. Superconductors mean almost perfectly efficient computing.

Scale that to the world's supercomputers, and you begin to get an idea of the performance impact when trillions of transistors based on superconducting materials work in tandem across GPU and CPU tiles to accelerate things like Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads. Or scale it in the realm of consumer electronics, quantum computing (where superconductors are important for Josephson junctions), and magnets in general (maglev trains, tokamak fusion reactors, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), electric motors and generators...)

If you can dream it and it features an electrical current or magnetism, it's likely a superconducting material would improve most aspects of it while leaving a surplus of previously-wasted energy within humanity's batteries. Environmental sustainability, then, is also a factor.

There might be more to LK-99 than skeptics expected, as two research teams have already confirmed the superconductivity claims - albeit in preliminary testing. Researcher Sinéad Griffin from the U.S.'s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab pored over the original paper, taking advantage of the supercomputing capabilities within the Department of Energy to simulate the LK-99 material. This complex-yet-simple concoction results from combining the minerals lanarkite (Pb?SO?) and copper phosphide (Cu?P), which are then baked within a 4-day, multi-step, small batch, solid-state synthesis process.

As a result of the simulations, the researcher published an analysis letter in pre-print form to Arxiv, where she confirmed that the resulting material should manifest the superconduction pathways for electrons to travel through unimpeded and without any resistance. Interestingly, she noticed that these superconducting pathways only form in very specific areas of the compound, namely the highest-energy areas of the resulting crystal lattice.

Because physics dictates that systems tend to remain stable at their lowest-possible energy states, this means that the amount of superconducting material produced with each "shake-and-bake" manufacturing attempt will result in relatively low quantities of the material. The hope, then, is that further refinements to the fabrication process will yield higher quantities of the material that can then be harvested and put toward building the superconductors themselves.

But in what's perhaps the most definite sign of a verification, Chinese researchers with the Huazhong University of Science and Technology have claimed to have successfully replicated the superconductor's manufacturing process, posting a video on Twitter as proof (expand the tweet above to see the video).

The above video showcases the Meissner effect as being definite proof of the material's superconducting capabilities. The Meissner effect refers to the expulsion of a magnetic field due to the superconducting process. It is the reason why the video showcases levitating materials - they are interacting with LK-99's Meissner-induced magnetic field.

The entire story surrounding this discovery is a scientific rollercoaster ride, with rogue scientists, updated papers, plus cloudy definitions and process descriptions within the paper that make replication efforts more difficult, and even a Russian soil scientist (and anime catgirl) deconstructing the original Korean paper to unveil the trademark levitation of the Meissner effect over her own kitchen counter.

We've seen movies with much less complex plots than this already. It's eerily appropriate that such a monumental discovery would be rife with drama. And we're still waiting for a definite announcement that yes, humanity has finally produced room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors. After that, there are plenty more physics barriers to crash through, as always.

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Dora Hates You

this is the 10th or 15th time you have said that about an article you have posted. did any of those pan out

Well, the Chinese team that duplicated the superconducting material verified its superconductivity at room temperature and documented it in video. The material "repels" magnetism and is seen 'levitating'. At room temperature.

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Dora Hates You

The advances in nuclear physics since....barbieheimer:
are fucking amazing.
The out there cutting edge kind of thinking and funding that leads to the type of potential god-particle type of breakthroughs like this...are under severe threat under the antiscience religiosity qaqa
associated with the qult of the fat orange monkey.
A resistance free, lossless way to transmit...well, gee:
power.....information...
Naaaah, just pray it away.

..... one can always dream

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It's a democratic hoax

The advances have been amazing, but I fail to see how religious people are against superconductor research. Seems like an ill-informed swipe at those who believe in God. Am I misunderstanding something (entirely possible)? p.s. equating religious people with all being supporters of the orange guy wouldn't be accurate either.

The applications are mind boggling.

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"One of the reasons why propaganda tries to get you to hate government is because it's the one existing institution in which people can participate to some extent and constrain tyrannical unaccountable power." Noam Chomsky.

Good Question - and a few looks at any of nuke's incessant troll posts over in NSR provide the answer . every once in a while he likes to sneak out of there... and see how he does in more normal parts of the forum. this is the result continue,

Ha Ha! Nuke comes out in the real world and gets slapped down. Priceless.

facts^ . most folks can figure out NO politics, NO religion.

The idea of resistance free "perpetual motion" machines for quantum computing and energy production is exciting.....dreamt about for ages. To see it finally brought to fruition.....
Manageable fusion anyone?
Antiscience, anti STEM learning, and defunding of fundamental research in the sciences as espoused by the extreme right, including some of the religiosity qults in this qountry will make that much hard to achieve.
arf arf

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It's a democratic hoax

Edited: 08/06/2023 at 11:15 AM by nukeh2o

there that Qanon magat troll puppy goes again. he's a habitual linestepper who can't hellp his little arf self. lets see how far this goes

I agree that it is fascinating science. But, I still don't see how you are equating religious people with being anti-science. It just seems like a lazy claim by someone who maybe doesn't believe in God and is somehow bitter towards those that do? Truly nothing personal, and I have no idea nor do I care about debates from other forums, I just get tired of people putting down religious people for inaccurate reasons.

This guy is being wilfully ignorant here for an agenda apparently.
Many many people who are fascinated with all the amazing new revelations truly realize....as did folks like oppenheimer and einstein:
that the universe is far too organized to have happened at random, aka: belief in a higher power.
God does not play dice with the universe

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It's a democratic hoax

Gonna have to quote that one so we dont loose it on an edit. You are saying god could not handle creating the world?

Agenda 101.
I quoted einstein, dumkopf
derrrrp....herp derp
Now: about that amazing superconductor research....
Waayyy out on the outer edge of physics, particles can also be waves.
Time changes, depending on how fast you go....etc.
Good book about advanced science and things spiritual: The Tao of Physics

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It's a democratic hoax

Attempts to replicate the claim aren't succeeding. I suspect there might be a news story in Science later this evening.

now there's a BIG surprise