Superconductor Breakthrough?

Andy_W

Andy_W

Well-known member
Apparently, this is big news, and even bigger if it actually turns out to be true.

Could be massive news for energy transmission, generation and efficiency, as well as transportation and communications.

www.independent.co.uk

Scientists might have made the ‘biggest physics discovery of a lifetime’ – or not

Breakthrough would mark ‘holy grails of modern physics, unlocking major new developments in energy, transportation, healthcare, and communications’ – but it is a long way from being proven
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
It would be a huge breakthrough Andy. The article barely scratches the surface of what it would mean. Fusion energy would jump forward to , almost, being a reality, useable quantum computers would be a reality in a couple of years and in a desktop box in a decade.

Those two things alone solve so many problems. A true quantum computer will be able to predict weather patterns so incredibly accurately as to be a window into the future. Of course, stock markets would become a thing of the past, quantum computers will model market fluctuations to turn the markets into ATM's, they become unviable. And of course all our current cryptography becomes worthless and has to be developed from scratch.

For energy, it would mean limitless "clean" energy for fractions of pennies.

Unfortunately, it's probably not the breakthrough it is being reported as and to be fair to the independent, they do say as much. We can produce superconductor materials, just have to stick em in a fridge until they reach -273 degrees C.
 
Laughing said:
It would be a huge breakthrough Andy. The article barely scratches the surface of what it would mean. Fusion energy would jump forward to , almost, being a reality, useable quantum computers would be a reality in a couple of years and in a desktop box in a decade.

Those two things alone solve so many problems. A true quantum computer will be able to predict weather patterns so incredibly accurately as to be a window into the future. Of course, stock markets would become a thing of the past, quantum computers will model market fluctuations to turn the markets into ATM's, they become unviable. And of course all our current cryptography becomes worthless and has to be developed from scratch.

For energy, it would mean limitless "clean" energy for fractions of pennies.

Unfortunately, it's probably not the breakthrough it is being reported as and to be fair to the independent, they do say as much. We can produce superconductor materials, just have to stick em in a fridge until they reach -273 degrees C.
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Yeah, the more I read, the bigger deal it seems to be, hope it pans out, it could really change the world.

Sounds like it could be a key thing for fusion and jump it forward a lot. Probably still would have a long way to go mind, but I'm not a physicist and certainly no nuclear physicist :LOL:

Reducing transmission losses and improving motor efficiency would be an absolutely ludicrous benefit and apparently could have a massive benefit with batteries also.

Yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up, but over the next decade, I think we're going to crack some incredible things.

Apparently, some others should be able to replicate what they've done fairly quicky, so maybe get a yes or no on it quite soon, to some degree.
 
Laughing said:
. And of course all our current cryptography becomes worthless and has to be developed from scratch.
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That's the scary bit who have develops the technology first will be a in a good spot, whole quantum computing is mental listened to a pod cast about a while ago scary and amazing at the same time even the top guys are unsure how some of it works but it does just apparently lol
 
ITK physicists claim room temperature superconductors are a “done deal”.
Science fans on message boards decide to keep their fingers crossed and wait for official unveiling.
 
ThePrisoner said:
I'm sceptical. As Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott once said: "Ye cannae break the laws o' physics."
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We can already create superconductors, just not at room temperature. However, you may still be right. Absolute zero causes the electrons to "pair up" causing supeconductivity. We have to figure out a way to make electrons behave in this way at room temperature, it's not very likely.
 
Fattyfoggon said:
That's the scary bit who have develops the technology first will be a in a good spot, whole quantum computing is mental listened to a pod cast about a while ago scary and amazing at the same time even the top guys are unsure how some of it works but it does just apparently lol
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You are right, the first country to crack a fully progamable quantum computer will have free reign reading every other countries secrets.

I did read an article that cryptographers are working on new cryptography that won't be breakable even by quantum computers. It's in readiness but I don't know where current efforts are.

As an interesting side note the guy that invented PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Philip Zimmerman had a 5 year legal battle to release this to the world. The US government were opposed to it and classified encryption as munitions so he couldn't export it to the rest of the world.

I should say that PGP is the basis for all our encryption today.

In any event to get around the munitions export laws he did something quite amazing. Without googling, how did Zimmerman get PGP across the US borders to the rest of the world. And no googling you are cheating yourself. You have all the information in this post to figure it out.
 
Laughing said:
You are right, the first country to crack a fully progamable quantum computer will have free reign reading every other countries secrets.

I did read an article that cryptographers are working on new cryptography that won't be breakable even by quantum computers. It's in readiness but I don't know where current efforts are.

As an interesting side note the guy that invented PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Philip Zimmerman had a 5 year legal battle to release this to the world. The US government were opposed to it and classified encryption as munitions so he couldn't export it to the rest of the world.

I should say that PGP is the basis for all our encryption today.

In any event to get around the munitions export laws he did something quite amazing. Without googling, how did Zimmerman get PGP across the US borders to the rest of the world. And no googling you are cheating yourself. You have all the information in this post to figure it out.
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Easy. Email.
 
Don’t believe it until it has been thoroughly peer reviewed/replicated by other teams.
A similar story broke about 20 years ago and turned out to be untrue.
At temperatures approaching absolute zero (-273C) particles have little vibration and so do not impede the flow of electrons much, hence conduction is easier. At higher temperatures, the vibration of particles impedes the flow. Metals conduct as they have lots of mobile electrons. Cool them and they conduct better. How can superconductivity occur at higher temperatures?
 
Noroomforpudding said:
Don’t believe it until it has been thoroughly peer reviewed/replicated by other teams.
A similar story broke about 20 years ago and turned out to be untrue.
At temperatures approaching absolute zero (-273C) particles have little vibration and so do not impede the flow of electrons much, hence conduction is easier. At higher temperatures, the vibration of particles impedes the flow. Metals conduct as they have lots of mobile electrons. Cool them and they conduct better. How can superconductivity occur at higher temperatures?
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You are right about very low temperatures creating superconductors because of no quantum movement. Thats how superconducters were originally created. More recently we have moved to loosely coupled electrons called cooper pairs as they work at higher temperatures, though still very cold.. It essential "leads" electrons through a path of least resistance.

Apparently how LK99 works is by changing the internal structure of a leadbased crsytaline structure where rings of lead atoms are replaced with copper, creating the material LK99. It allows, apparently, for superconductivity through quantum tunneling. In essence quantum tunnelling allows a particle to pass through a energy barrier as if it were not there.

The fact that the paper comes from a group of Korean researchers who have been working on funded quantum computer research for nearly 2 decades. It lends some credence to their claims. The second thing that has stopped scientists from dismissing it outright is that one paper comes from 3 researchers, then there is another paper with 6 researchers names attached to it (some repeated). This is relevant because this, if it's true is an automatic nobel prize and it seems there is a bit of a scramble to be credited with this.

To balance that, Nature told em to do one when they asked them to publish the paper as Nature got burned after they printed Ranga Dias' paper that you alluded to.
 
Laughing said:
The fact that the paper comes from a group of Korean researchers who have been working on funded quantum computer research for nearly 2 decades. It lends some credence to their claims. The second thing that has stopped scientists from dismissing it outright is that one paper comes from 3 researchers, then there is another paper with 6 researchers names attached to it (some repeated). This is relevant because this, if it's true is an automatic nobel prize and it seems there is a bit of a scramble to be credited with this.
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That's what's stopping me from dismissing it straight out of hand. If this is all nonsense, or something they were unsure about, they wouldn't be scrambling to get credit. They clearly think they're on to something here, so they all want to make sure they get the Nobel Prize. Very exciting if they are right about this.
 
It's a race against time we either break through with energy in the next 10 years or so or it's irreversible decline for the species.

I wish all these people the best of luck and hope they are right.
 
If something is seems unbelievably cheap or easy it sets off alarm bells in people. If it is that easy and can be proven then show the unbelievers that evidence or better yet let them do the same tests in a controlled environment.
 
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