LK-99: A Room-Temp/Ambient-Pressure Superconductor?

[The Royal We 3072]

I did a little digging and was surprised to see that there hadn't been any chatter about this yet on the Surl. The science behind this is well beyond my ability to fully understand, but the potential implications if this is real could change the world as we know it. The South Korean scientists who made the discovery and posted a paper about it would almost certainly win the Nobel Prize if this is confirmed to be legit.

The quick and dirty:

Quote

Let’s look at what’s being claimed, and how strong the evidence seems to be. The authors describe a lead-based copper-doped material, LK-99, which is made by first preparing a well-characterized mineral (lanarkite, Pb2(SO4)O) from lead oxide and lead sulfate. Separately, copper phosphide (Cu3P), another well-characterized compound, is also freshly prepared from elemental copper and phosphorus. These two substances are ground together in a 1:1 ratio and the mixture is sealed in a vacuum-evacuated quartz tube and heated to 925C, forming LK-99, which is Pb10-xCux(PO4)6O, a dark polycrystalline material. The structure is very similar to lead apatite, a well-characterized phosphate mineral, but its crystallographic unit cell is slightly smaller due to the substitution of particular lead atoms in its lattice by copper ones.

And it’s this effect on the compound’s structure, the authors believe, that leads to its extraordinary superconducting behavior. Honestly, “extraordinary” doesn’t get it across. We’ve been getting excited over the years about superconducting materials that don’t even quite have to be cooled with liquid nitrogen, and this stuff is claimed to superconduct all the way up to room temperature and indeed up past the boiling point of water. Its critical temperature is said to be 127C (!) The phrase “boiling-water superconductor” is not one that I had ever used until yesterday, trust me on that.

So they claim to have discovered a superconducting material that is made from readily available materials and not Unobtanium or Vibraniaum.

Potential implications:

Quote

But as usual, it's a gigantic step to just show that such things can exist. That’s what will shake everyone up well before any applications come along, and if this reproduces, labs around the world will frantically start looking for quantum-well superconducting materials of their own. Who knows what could come out of that? Robust high-current-density room-temperature superconductors are right out of science fiction (SF readers will recall that one such material was a big plot point in Larry Niven’s Ringworld). Electrical generation and transmission, antennas, power storage, magnet applications (including things like fusion power plants), electric motors and basically everything that runs on electricity would be affected. We could stop throwing away so much generated power on heating up the wires that deliver it, for starters.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/breaking-superconductor-news

Labs all over the world started working on replicating this immediately since the materials needed were easy to get their hands on. A couple of them claimed to have been successful yesterday:

Quote

As of this morning, there are (as yet not really verified) reports of replication from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. At least, a video has been posted showed what could be a sample of LK-99 levitating over a magnet due to the Meissner effect, and in different orientations relative to the magnet itself. That's important, because a (merely!) paramagnetic material can levitate in a sufficiently strong field (as can diamagnetic materials like water droplets and frogs), but these can come back to a particular orientation like a compass needle. Superconductors are "perfect diamagnets", excluding all magnetic fields, and that's a big difference. The "Meissner effect" that everyone has been hearing about so much is observed when a material first becomes superconductive at the right temperature and expels whatever magnetic fields were penetrating it at the time. All this said, we're having to take the video on the statements of whoever made/released it, and there are other possible explanations for the it that do not involve room-temperature superconductivity. I will be very happy if this is a real replication, but I'm not taking the day off yet to celebrate just based on this.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/room-temperature-superconductor-new-developments

A deeper dive into the science:

 

I'm not STONKing into all the mining stocks just yet, but I'm starting to dig around a little bit into the companies that would be on the bleeding edge if this turns out to be the real deal.

Edited August 2, 2023 by The Royal We

[BabaYaga 15320]

 

[0xdeadbeef 1652]

I've been following it with a slow but rapidly increasing interest.  It sounded like just another BS claim at first, data is dribbling in and  I want to Believe.

A scientist at one of the Department of Energy's most prestigious labs (lawrence berkeley national laboratory) did a simulation of LK-99 and claims it is theoretically possible the real deal.   

 

 

 

A good summary: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by 0xdeadbeef

[The Royal We 3072]

I saw that reddit TLDR thread last night and was trying to dig it back up for my post but couldn't find it. Thank you.

I just want a MagLev train that can get me from NY to LA in ~20 mins. LK-99 could make it possible without the need to keep the magnets supercooled to -450F.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/nyc-to-la-in-21-minutes-inside-rands-wild-1970s-proposal-for-a-14000-mph-vacuum-train

[pantone159 719]

They did give good steps for reproducing their claims, and the synthesis seems pretty easy, so this will be proved or debunked in short order. So far it has not been debunked, so it might be real. If so, it will surely be a big deal. Even if this particular material is not very practical, it will be a starting point and other related materials will get tried very soon. Science at work!!!

Fyi, there is at the same time, another research group that has reported room temperature superconductivity, though at very high pressures, and that research is very dodgy, at least one paper related to that has been withdrawn due to suspected data fraud. But those issues do not apply to LK-99.

 

[ztejas 43537]

I'm not buying it until Travis Taylor and a hot university professor from a barely related field explain it to me on the history Channel. 

[0xdeadbeef 1652]

 

 

9 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

They did give good steps for reproducing their claims, and the synthesis seems pretty easy, so this will be proved or debunked in short order.

 

0 for 3 so far, but it's still early days.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 

Group	Country	Status	Result	References	Notes
Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China	Results unavailable	2023-08-01: Video claiming to show diamagnetism of small (< 0.1 mm) flakes of LK-99. Reportedly making a new batch to measure resistance.	[34][37][38][39]	Post-doctoral Wu Hao, Doctoral Yang Li, Professor Chang Haixin. Video posted to bilibili, no official announcement.
Beihang University	China	Preliminary results available	No diamagnetism observed. LK-99 sample had high resistivity not consistent with superconductivity.	[40][41]	Li Liu, et al. arXiv.
Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research - National Physical Laboratory of India (CSIR-NPLI)	India	Preliminary results available	Structure confirmed by XRD. No diamagnetism observed.	[40][27]	Kapil Kumar, et al. Verified authors,[42][43][39] arXiv.
Southeast University	China	Preliminary results available	No diamagnetism or levitation observed.	[44][36]	Prof. Sun Yue, et al.
Argonne National Laboratory	United States	Un­known	—	[45]
Sungkyunkwan University	South Korea	Un­known	—	[30]
Korea University		Un­known	—
Seoul National University		Un­known	—
Varda Space Industries & University of Southern California	United States	Un­known	—	[46][47][39]	Engineer & entrepreneur on X and Twitch. Resulting samples due to be analysed by University of Southern California after production.

 

 

[We’reTexas 1473]

 

[Homercles 10206]

2 minutes ago, We’reTexas said:

 

[BrickHorn 18285]

12 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

 

 

 

0 for 3 so far, but it's still early days.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 

Group	Country	Status	Result	References	Notes
Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China	Results unavailable	2023-08-01: Video claiming to show diamagnetism of small (< 0.1 mm) flakes of LK-99. Reportedly making a new batch to measure resistance.	[34][37][38][39]	Post-doctoral Wu Hao, Doctoral Yang Li, Professor Chang Haixin. Video posted to bilibili, no official announcement.
Beihang University	China	Preliminary results available	No diamagnetism observed. LK-99 sample had high resistivity not consistent with superconductivity.	[40][41]	Li Liu, et al. arXiv.
Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research - National Physical Laboratory of India (CSIR-NPLI)	India	Preliminary results available	Structure confirmed by XRD. No diamagnetism observed.	[40][27]	Kapil Kumar, et al. Verified authors,[42][43][39] arXiv.
Southeast University	China	Preliminary results available	No diamagnetism or levitation observed.	[44][36]	Prof. Sun Yue, et al.
Argonne National Laboratory	United States	Un­known	—	[45]
Sungkyunkwan University	South Korea	Un­known	—	[30]
Korea University		Un­known	—
Seoul National University		Un­known	—
Varda Space Industries & University of Southern California	United States	Un­known	—	[46][47][39]	Engineer & entrepreneur on X and Twitch. Resulting samples due to be analysed by University of Southern California after production.

 

 

[Dahobbs 17681]

23 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I'm not buying it until Travis Taylor and a hot university professor from a barely related field explain it to me on the history Channel. 

What if we had a blurry video?

*Ducks*

[ztejas 43537]

4 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

What if we had a blurry video?

*Ducks*

I'm imagining a material like this - if it exists - could unironically have massive aerospace implications. 

[The Royal We 3072]

43 minutes ago, 0xdeadbeef said:

 

 

 

0 for 3 so far, but it's still early days.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 

Group	Country	Status	Result	References	Notes
Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China	Results unavailable	2023-08-01: Video claiming to show diamagnetism of small (< 0.1 mm) flakes of LK-99. Reportedly making a new batch to measure resistance.	[34][37][38][39]	Post-doctoral Wu Hao, Doctoral Yang Li, Professor Chang Haixin. Video posted to bilibili, no official announcement.
Beihang University	China	Preliminary results available	No diamagnetism observed. LK-99 sample had high resistivity not consistent with superconductivity.	[40][41]	Li Liu, et al. arXiv.
Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research - National Physical Laboratory of India (CSIR-NPLI)	India	Preliminary results available	Structure confirmed by XRD. No diamagnetism observed.	[40][27]	Kapil Kumar, et al. Verified authors,[42][43][39] arXiv.
Southeast University	China	Preliminary results available	No diamagnetism or levitation observed.	[44][36]	Prof. Sun Yue, et al.
Argonne National Laboratory	United States	Un­known	—	[45]
Sungkyunkwan University	South Korea	Un­known	—	[30]
Korea University		Un­known	—
Seoul National University		Un­known	—
Varda Space Industries & University of Southern California	United States	Un­known	—	[46][47][39]	Engineer & entrepreneur on X and Twitch. Resulting samples due to be analysed by University of Southern California after production.

 

 

Is this an update to the Southeast University results mentioned in your chart?

 

ETA - nevermind, not room temp, should have read closer.

Edited August 2, 2023 by The Royal We

[0xdeadbeef 1652]

3 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

Is this an update to the Southeast University results mentioned in your chart?

 

Pssst, hey Chinese dudes.   

Are you 100% sure that you turned the center selector dial? 

Come on now. Not 99% sure. Cause not turning that dial will in fact get you a nice clean 0 resistance.

[Blotto 23575]

I spent about 20 minutes browsing the numerous threads on reddit about the topic. Reactions are all over the map and I'm too dumb to really understand whats up at this point. But the fact that the technology didn't originate in BCS and no maroon carrots are involved have me cautiously optimistic.

[futureman 22544]

take this to the nerdz forum

[pantone159 719]

The following preprint paper seems to very conclusively show room temperature superconductivity. They even got it with the old-standard YBCO material!

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2003/2003.14321.pdf

[The Royal We 3072]

This US team started gathering materials for a replication attempt the first night after the paper was published and appear to have been able to generate a tiny fleck of the material in their first attempt. Evidently the original paper is very generic in some of the steps needed to synthesize the LK99; for example, these guys tried 13 different "bake" times in the furnace for one of the steps. A lot of those times generated partially synthesized materials or just straight garbage. But this one little fleck does exhibit the Meissner effect - at least on one end of the material. People a lot smarter than me are encouraged by this... 

 

[The Royal We 3072]

MOAR!

 

[Parliament 14296]

So #itshappening maybe?

Folks say it would take a very long time to replace copper with SC's.  But the better the payoff, the higher the motivation.  Humanity might be OK after all.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

On 8/2/2023 at 1:11 PM, ztejas said:

I'm imagining a material like this - if it exists - could unironically have massive aerospace implications. 

[ztejas 43537]

I'm trying to figure out how rare Lanarkite is. It seems like there isn't a ton of info on it - but that could either be because it's a very rare, obscure mineral or because there has never been any desirability or practical applications for it. 

You would think that would be the potential bottleneck. 

[pantone159 719]

13 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Folks say it would take a very long time to replace copper with SC's.  But the better the payoff, the higher the motivation.  Humanity might be OK after all.

One thing to remember before getting too excited about this, is that the now-standard 'high temperature' superconductor, the YBCO ceramic which works with liquid nitrogen, has been around for at least 30 years but has not replaced more old-fashioned superconductors in most applications. So there can be a long way from a material that does interesting things in the lab, and a commercially useful material.

[pantone159 719]

8 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I'm trying to figure out how rare Lanarkite is. It seems like there isn't a ton of info on it - but that could either be because it's a very rare, obscure mineral or because there has never been any desirability or practical applications for it. 

You would think that would be the potential bottleneck. 

It is synthesized in the process of making LK-99. You start with simple available chemicals, no need to mine minerals. But one of the things that is made along the way of making LK-99 is basically that mineral, but you make it and don't mine it.

[ztejas 43537]

Just now, pantone159 said:

It is synthesized in the process of making LK-99. You start with simple available chemicals, no need to mine minerals. But one of the things that is made along the way of making LK-99 is basically that mineral, but you make it and don't mine it.

Ah okay. Makes sense. I was wondering how all of these scientists were instantly attempting it. 

[thunderlounge 7935]

34 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

One thing to remember before getting too excited about this, is that the now-standard 'high temperature' superconductor, the YBCO ceramic which works with liquid nitrogen, has been around for at least 30 years but has not replaced more old-fashioned superconductors in most applications. So there can be a long way from a material that does interesting things in the lab, and a commercially useful material.

And you don’t think the removal of liquid nitrogen and extremely high pressures wouldn’t rectify that issue?

[The Royal We 3072]

3 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

And you don’t think the removal of liquid nitrogen and extremely high pressures wouldn’t rectify that issue?

Yea, this is my thought as well. Sort of comparing apples and potatoes. 

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

42 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

It is synthesized in the process of making LK-99. You start with simple available chemicals, no need to mine minerals. But one of the things that is made along the way of making LK-99 is basically that mineral, but you make it and don't mine it.

Shhhhh! I'm selling Lanarkite mining claims and you're destroying my business!

[NeverMarryAStripper 21921]

This is just another liberal conspiracy to undermine the oil and gas industry here in our great state

[pantone159 719]

37 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

And you don’t think the removal of liquid nitrogen and extremely high pressures wouldn’t rectify that issue?

YBCO works at atmospheric pressure. If it was indeed suitable as an industrial superconductor, using only liquid N2, it would have completely replaced the old-school stuff that needs liquid helium, which is far more expensive. But it hasn't.

[thunderlounge 7935]

2 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

YBCO works at atmospheric pressure. If it was indeed suitable as an industrial superconductor, using only liquid N2, it would have completely replaced the old-school stuff that needs liquid helium, which is far more expensive. But it hasn't.

And you still think removing the liquid nitrogen requirement wouldn’t impact its usefulness?

Seems like kind of a big deal. 

[Biff Tannen 45737]

This guy at Nature is not impressed.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02481-0

Quote

Claimed superconductor LK-99 is an online sensation — but replication efforts fall short

Social media is abuzz with chatter about the material, but some scientists are pushing back on the hype.

Spoiler

 Korean team’s claim to have discovered a superconductor that works at room temperature and ambient pressure has become a viral sensation — and prompted a slew of replication efforts by scientists and amateurs alike. But initial efforts to experimentally and theoretically reproduce the buzzworthy result have come up short, and researchers remain deeply sceptical.

The research team, led by Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim at the start-up firm Quantum Energy Research Centre in Seoul said in preprints published on 25 July^1,2 that a compound of copper, lead, phosphorus and oxygen, dubbed LK-99, is a superconductor at ambient pressure and temperatures above 127 °C (400 Kelvin). The team claims that samples show two key signs of superconductivity: zero electrical resistance and the Meissner effect, in which the material expels magnetic fields, leading samples to levitate above a magnet. Previous efforts have achieved superconductivity only in certain materials under incredibly low temperatures or extremely high pressures. No material has ever been confirmed to be a superconductor under ambient conditions.

LK-99’s purported superconductivity drew immediate scrutiny from scientists. “My first impression was ‘no.’” says Inna Vishik, a condensed matter experimentalist at the University of California, Davis. “These ‘Unidentified Superconducting Objects’, as they’re sometimes called, reliably show up on the arXiv. There’s a new one every year or so.” Advances in superconductivity are often touted for their potential practical impact on technologies such as computer chips and maglev trains, but Vishik points out that such excitement might be misplaced. Historically, progress in superconductivity has had tremendous benefits for basic science, but little in the way of everyday applications. There’s no guarantee a material that is a room-temperature superconductor would be of practical use, Vishik says.

The first attempts to replicate LK-99, reported in the past days, have not improved the material’s prospects. None of the studies provide direct evidence for any superconductivity in the material. (The Korean team did not respond to Nature’s request for comment.)

Two separate experimental efforts by teams at the National Physical Laboratory of India in New Delhi³ and Beihang University in Beijing⁴, reported synthesizing LK-99, but did not observe signs of superconductivity. A third experiment by researchers at Southeast University in Nanjing⁵ found no Meissner effect, but measured near zero resistance in LK-99 at -163 °C (110 K) — which is far below room temperature, but high for superconductors.

Theorists have also entered the fray. Several theoretical studies^6,7,8,9 used a computational technique called density functional theory (DFT) to calculate LK-99’s electronic structure. The DFT calculations suggest LK-99 might have interesting electronic features that, in other materials, have been associated with behavior such as ferromagnetism and superconductivity. But none of the studies found evidence that LK-99 is a superconductor at ambient conditions.

Early efforts

Replicators first attempted to synthesize LK-99, following the process described by the Korean team, which involved mixing powdered components and two stages of heating up to 925 °C. (The high temperatures and use of lead have prompted concerns about amateur replication attempts, which researchers say are dangerous.)

To confirm that material’s structure and identity, replicators used X-ray diffraction, an atomic imaging technique. The Beihang team concluded that their sample’s structure was “highly consistent” with that of LK-99.

A co-author on the National Physical Laboratory team, physicist Veerpal Singh Awana, acknowledged small differences between their sample and that of the Korean team. “Our LK-99 is very similar to that as the reported superconducting LK-99,” he says.

But Robert Palgrave, a chemist at University College London, says that both teams’ materials differ from the original. Both X-ray diffraction patterns are significantly different from the Korean team’s patterns and from each other, says Palgrave. (Members of the Beihang team did not respond to Nature’s request for comment.)

The Southeastern University team’s experiment produced X-ray diffraction data that is more consistent with the Korean team’s sample, according to Palgrave. But several researchers have questioned their claim of achieving zero resistance at -163 °C. Evan Zalys-Geller, a condensed matter physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, says that the resistance measurement wasn’t sensitive enough to distinguish between a zero resistance superconductor or a low-resistance metal like copper. (Members of the Southeastern University team did not respond to a request for comment.)

Theory troubles

Uncertainty about the structure of LK-99 limits the conclusions that researchers can draw from theoretical studies, which assume a given structure for the material to make calculations.

On 31 July, a theoretical analysis posted on Twitter prompted excitement among online enthusiasts. Sinéad Griffin, who studies quantum materials at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, shared her theory paper, accompanied by a gif of former US president Barack Obama performing a ‘mic drop’. The optimism was prompted by Griffin’s use of DFT to find that LK-99 has ‘flat bands’, a feature that indicates electrons in the material are strongly correlated with each other. “Flat band systems tend to show interesting physics,” Vishik says. “So when a material is predicted to have a flat band, people get kind of excited.”

Griffin later rebuffed the optimism, tweeting: “My paper did *not* prove nor give evidence of superconductivity.”

Other theory papers also suggested the presence of flat bands, but all of them suffer from the same assumption about the structure, says Leslie Schoop, a solid state chemist at Princeton University in New Jersey. “In a nutshell, I don’t believe any of the DFT before I know the correct crystal structure,” she says.

Griffin agrees that knowing the structure is essential. But she says that the structure found by the Korean team is similar to that of other lead phosphate minerals. “So it’s not too bizarre to think it possible.”

Even if future experiments confirm flat bands, the feature does not mean the material would display room-temperature superconductivity, Schoop says. The association between flat bands and superconductivity comes from other materials, such as ‘twisted’ layers of graphene — slightly offset sheets of atomically thin carbon — which displayed superconductivity at -271 °C (1.7 K) and featured flat bands. But this does not provide evidence for superconductivity above 127 °C (400 K) in the lead-based LK-99, Schoop says.

Viral videos

The limited success of the replication attempts has not quelled speculation online. Unverified videos of samples, supposedly levitating because of superconductivity, have circulated as viral evidence, despite the fact that many materials — including graphene, frogs and pliers — can exhibit similar magnetic behaviour.

Previous room-temperature superconductivity claims, including one made in March by the controversial physicist Ranga Dias, have made headlines. But the viral attention associated with LK-99 has surpassed many of its predecessors.

Frustrated by the atmosphere of hype, some scientists have taken to mimicking the levitation videos with everyday materials suspended by string and other props. “I opened Twitter up one day and noticed a bunch of sketchy videos with little floating pebbles,” says Eric Aspling, a physicist at Binghamton University in New York. In response, he uploaded a video featuring a “sample of LK-99 shaped as a fork” suspended by tape. “I thought, ‘How can anybody be convinced by this?’,” he says.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02481-0

 

[Fudge Nuggets 19224]

Noted scientific wet blanket, Sabine Hossenfelder, has already shit all over the claim.  Guess we will see, but I'm not getting my hopes up.  We are no longer allowed to have nice things so why would this be any different.

[ztejas 43537]

I mean.... is it not possible that the SK team might be withholding some details necessary for replication? Wouldn't they want to cash in before everyone else can solve it?

Someone said that some of their instructions or description of the process was a little vague. 

The fact that all of these scientists are also saying that it makes sense and seems very possible in theory makes me lean in that direction as well. 

There would also be motivation behind faking/hoaxing it - just saying that there could be a few different things going on. 

[The Royal We 3072]

5 minutes ago, ztejas said:

I mean.... is it not possible that the SK team might be withholding some details necessary for replication? Wouldn't they want to cash in before everyone else can solve it?

Someone said that some of their instructions or description of the process was a little vague.

Very vague. This guy compared their description of the process to something like an old treasure map scribbled down on a napkin.

 

It seems like it's a miracle they even got this close on their 1st attempt if that is the ranges they were working with.

[ztejas 43537]

9 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

It seems like it's a miracle they even got this close on their 1st attempt if that is the ranges they were working with.

Which is what makes me think - when dialed in properly - it's completely feasible. 

Then again, if you were wanting to fake it I guess leaving the descriptions vague would help perpetrate the hoax. It could be that it's easy to get very very close but impossible or almost impossible to pull off.

[The Royal We 3072]

Could be, who knows. I read early on that some of the scientists that put their name on the original paper were very reputable and had proverbial skins on the wall already. I don't know why they would risk torching their reputation over this if they knew it was really bunk. They would have to find a new line of work if they could no longer get funding for any future research projects.

[ztejas 43537]

14 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

Could be, who knows. I read early on that some of the scientists that put their name on the original paper were very reputable and had proverbial skins on the wall already. I don't know why they would risk torching their reputation over this if they knew it was really bunk. They would have to find a new line of work if they could no longer get funding for any future research projects.

Another good data point. 

Which would make me further lean in the direction that they're trying to cash it in first. 

I mean, this is the country that gave us Samsung. 

[Brisketexan 105335]

From what I've learned from watching innovation over the past 25 years or so.....we'll know that this has genuine utility and scalability when the porn industry finds a way to run with it.

[Mikey4 2476]

So we now have 2 (I think) videos showing this material levitating or partially levitating over a magnet. Assuming those aren't hoaxes, is there any alternative scientific explanation for that phenomenon? Like, "this isn't a superconductor, but instead is XYZ, which can produce a similar levitating effect?"

[Newdoc 3453]

2 minutes ago, Mikey4 said:

So we now have 2 (I think) videos showing this material levitating or partially levitating over a magnet.

Did the video look anything like this?

[Blotto 23575]

3 hours ago, Mikey4 said:

So we now have 2 (I think) videos showing this material levitating or partially levitating over a magnet. Assuming those aren't hoaxes, is there any alternative scientific explanation for that phenomenon? Like, "this isn't a superconductor, but instead is XYZ, which can produce a similar levitating effect?"

well from the nature article referenced above:

Quote

The limited success of the replication attempts has not quelled speculation online. Unverified videos of samples, supposedly levitating because of superconductivity, have circulated as viral evidence, despite the fact that many materials — including graphene, frogs and pliers — can exhibit similar magnetic behaviour.

https://www.science.org/content/article/floating-frogs

 

Edited August 4, 2023 by Blotto

[The Royal We 3072]

[Sawbonz 27588]

 

44th post. Y’all are slippin 

[ABSR 5324]

Not real.  Lots of articles out there disproving it.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/10/23827216/superconductor-lk-99-research-findings

“With a great deal of sadness, we now believe that the game is over. LK99 is NOT a superconductor, not even at room temperatures (or at very low temperatures). It is a very highly resistive poor quality material. Period. No point in fighting with the truth,” the University of Maryland’s Condensed Matter Theory Center (CMTC) posted on August 7th. 

[Trey3216 15356]

On 8/4/2023 at 1:58 PM, ztejas said:

I mean.... is it not possible that the SK team might be withholding some details necessary for replication? Wouldn't they want to cash in before everyone else can solve it?

Someone said that some of their instructions or description of the process was a little vague. 

The fact that all of these scientists are also saying that it makes sense and seems very possible in theory makes me lean in that direction as well. 

There would also be motivation behind faking/hoaxing it - just saying that there could be a few different things going on. 

I mean…wouldn’t you???  They sure as shit wouldn’t want China getting the tech first.   Probably trying to perfect it and become trillionaires.   

[Hermanator 7172]

And....

 

LK99 is.....

NOT a superconductor. 

Turns out impurities of copper sulfide in the substance caused it to mimic some superconductor properties. Copper sulfide experiences a large drop in electrical resistance right around 104 degrees Celsius and that fooled the researchers. Case solved. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02585-7

[Texzilla58 4744]

It’s ok. It would never be used for real benefit of humanity. It would either be weaponized or used by google as a method of control by AI to deliver you HDTV in 16k and a pizza without a $4.99 delivery charge when all our jobs are eliminated. Back now to looking for cool new ways to depopulate the planet of 5 billion people

[Biff Tannen 45737]

Boooooo

[smuggs 9353]

On 8/4/2023 at 1:46 PM, Fudge Nuggets said:

Noted scientific wet blanket, Sabine Hossenfelder, has already shit all over the claim. 

Scientific Wet Blanket is the name of my Rush cover band.