Room-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First Time

[zombiejames]

Room-Temperature Superconductivity Achieved for the First Time

Physicists have reached a long-sought goal. The catch is that their room-temperature superconductor requires crushing pressures to keep from falling apart.

www.quantamagazine.org

A team of physicists in New York has discovered a material that conducts electricity with perfect efficiency at room temperature — a long-sought scientific milestone. The hydrogen, carbon and sulfur compound operates as a superconductor at up to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the team reported today in Nature. That's more than 50 degrees hotter than the previous high-temperature superconductivity record set last year.

"This is the first time we can really claim that room-temperature superconductivity has been found," said Ion Errea, a condensed matter theorist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain who was not involved in the work.

"It's clearly a landmark," said Chris Pickard, a materials scientist at the University of Cambridge. "That's a chilly room, maybe a British Victorian cottage," he said of the 59-degree temperature.

Click to shrink...

Still a ways to go, though:

Yet while researchers celebrate the achievement, they stress that the newfound compound — created by a team led by Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester — will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any of the revolutionary technologies that could become ubiquitous if the fragile quantum effect underlying superconductivity could be maintained in truly ambient conditions. That's because the substance superconducts at room temperature only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75% as extreme as those found in the Earth's core.

"People have talked about room-temperature superconductivity forever," Pickard said. "They may not have quite appreciated that when we did it, we were going to do it at such high pressures."

Click to shrink...

We're one step closer to Skynet, people!

 

[ibyea]

Wow, that's actually huge! As the article says, it's not going to find application any time soon, but to see this big milestone of condensed matter physics be achieved is fantastic.

 

[Corporal]

Say whaaat? Damn, that's nice. Sure, the pressure required for it to actually work is... an issue, but wow.

We live in exciting times.

 

[TAJ]

Where is 59F room temperature?
"Almost room temperature" would still be impressive. They don't have to lie.

 

[Paertan]

Where is 59F room temperature?
"Almost room temperature" would still be impressive. They don't to have to lie.

Click to shrink...

Room temperature - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

15 °C ( 59 °F ) is the lower limit of defined Room Temperature.

 

[Feep]

Really hoping for a functional room temp super conductor in the next twenty years, but it seems unlikely...and even more unlikely that it would be cheap enough to manufacture at scale.

 

[Neo C.]

It's huge. Most people probably don't see the importance of this research, but if they can improve and lessen the issues, this can be game changing.

 

[ToddBonzalez]

It's huge. Most people probably don't see the importance of this research, but if they can improve and lessen the issues, this can be game changing.

Click to shrink...

Can someone explain to me why this is big? Not being facetious, I just have literally no basis for understanding why this is a breakthrough and what new opportunities it could afford to us in the future.

 

[Neo C.]

Can someone explain to me why this is big? Not being facetious, I just have literally no basis for understanding why this is a breakthrough and what new opportunities it could afford to us in the future.

Click to shrink...

Superconductivity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This breakthrough probably won't have a practical application, but if we ever find an useful superconductor for our grid, we could save a lot of energy. And that's just the obvious example.

 

[Euler]

Impressive breakthrough.

 

[Paertan]

Can someone explain to me why this is big? Not being facetious, I just have literally no basis for understanding why this is a breakthrough and what new opportunities it could afford to us in the future.

Click to shrink...

There are several advantages but the main is electronics that don´t heat up when they are being used and do not produce a magnetic field. A computer that you don´t need to cool because it does not get warm. Cables that do not cause any magnetic field that can disrupt other equipment.
Of course even if a superconductor that works up body temperature is found it probably will not be usable for all parts of a regular computer. But depending on the other characteristics of the superconductor it could be huge.

 

[Burt]

Click to shrink...

I'm sorry for being off topic, but I've seen a lot of deleted scenes in movies, and between this and the terminator smile scene, I don't know if it's impressive that James Cameron had the self-awareness to scrap such abjectly shitty scenes, or a mark against him for shooting them in the first place.

 

[HommePomme]

This is the shit that makes me sad about the current state of the world. If we didn't have to worry about this insane political situation or climate change or whatever ending our run on this planet prematurely we could really see some incredible incredible stuff from scientists and the collective human race. Feels hard to imagine we'll actually get to see the full potential

 

[Temp_User]

Reading through that article, you could almost feel the palpable excitement from the other scientists quoted. So many other avenues to try.

 

[Silav101]

Superconductivity at 15C is awesome!

Oh...at 240 gigapascals...:(

 

[Lobster Roll]

Where is 59F room temperature?
"Almost room temperature" would still be impressive. They don't have to lie.

Click to shrink...

My house growing up, as well as many of my friends' houses as we all grew up working class. "Put on some extra socks" or "wear an extra shirt" was the typical response to wanting the heat turned on.

 

[Shamash]

I got really hyped up until i read the requirements of achieving superconductivity. Still is a major milestone towards getting superconductors in everyday situations. Will be interesting seeing how they'll improve on this.

 

[kami_sama]

Technically it's not room temperature lol
24C or bust :P
But yeah, even if it's at such great pressures, it's a great development.