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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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Technology
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According to the authors, the LK-99 material can be prepared in about 34 hrs with extremely basic lab equipment (a mortar & pestle, basic vacuum, and furnace). These results could be replicated within days or weeks.
100 billion kWh of electricity are wasted on transmission losses each year in the US alone.
That's equivalent to 3 of our largest nuclear reactors running 24/7. Superconductivity enables lossless electricity transmission at high voltages and currents.
Nuclear fusion reactors rely on superconductors for plasma confinement. This is the main reason why positive power output is challenging. Ambient superconductors will enable containment at a much lower energy cost.
Quantum computers use superconductors to preserve coherence in qubits. Small changes in temperature and pressure can cause the entire QC to fail during operation. Room temperature quantum computer desktop would now possible.
Superconductors might be the best batteries out there. Simply inject a current and keep it in the coil until you need it. Previously, too costly to maintain. Now, totally feasible.
Computer chips could be designed to have no resistive losses during operation with superconductors. This would result in elimination of heat waste energy produced during computation.
Finally, we could see cheap MRI machines, MagLev trains everywhere, and a super efficient electric grid.
This technology has the potential is to transform many aspects of our lives very rapidly.
There are actually people (e.g. https://www.twitch.tv/andrewmccalip) who are currently trying to replicate this. But from what early (internet) experts said, even if it works, is replicable and legit, it wouldn't allow much current through it, about a quarter of amp. Still promising, but not as groundbreaking as initially put.
There are plenty of applications where a room-temperature superconductor would still be amazing even with low max current. It could, for example, boost computing power immensely.
Totally, not to mention setting a huge precedent on the path of a better SC. Don't get me wrong, I definitely AM excited by LK99 ;)
I didn't expect to see scientists replicating experiments on Twitch of all places but hey, livestreaming tests should be the norm now
Yeah, definitely have to wait for more details to see how impactful this will be. Even knowing that superconductors are definitely possible under ambient conditions is a pretty big result.