8 months ago

For the past couple of weeks, the internet has been abuzz with the news that a team of South Korean researchers may have successfully created the world’s first superconductor that works at room temperature and at ambient pressure. If true, such a material could be potentially revolutionary, opening the way to things like facilitating the manufacture of levitating maglev trains and https://thenewstack.io/new-software-platform-for-quantum-computing-teases-launch/.

I don’t think people fully grasp the implications of an ambient temperature / pressure superconductor.

In their paper, the team outlines how they synthesized the superconducting material that they are calling LK-99.

The team found that the modified lead apatite’s electrical resistance decreased dramatically as the temperature was lowered, with resistivity going down to nearly zero at room temperature.