Right this moment’s superconductors often solely perform when cooled to extremely low temperatures. Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo / Alamy Inventory Photograph
It could be unfair to name it a thinker’s stone, but there’s something beguiling in regards to the seek for a room-temperature superconductor. This materials would have the ability to transmit electrical energy completely, with none resistance. It might decide up renewable vitality the place it’s ample and ship it effectively to faraway cities, going a great distance in the direction of fixing the local weather disaster.
No marvel, then, that when not one, however two such supplies had been supposedly found final yr, the physics world went right into a frenzy. In March 2023, researchers reported a fabric often known as “red matter” that might purportedly do the enterprise at 21°C (70°F), albeit solely at unimaginable pressures. A matter of weeks later, information broke of one other substance known as LK-99 that apparently labored at each room temperature and ambient strain. Alas, all that glitters isn’t gold – each claims have now been extensively dismissed.
However the fuss over these research obscures a extra delicate and fascinating reality: broader analysis in pursuit of a sensible superconductor is racing forwards and there’s a sense that, lastly, the search is popping a nook. Prior to now few years, there have been extra experimental breakthroughs than you may shake a stick at, whereas theorists are honing a wealth of strategies to foretell the composition of latest superconducting supplies from scratch. “People my age can keep in mind when it was completely…
Article amended on 9 Could 2024
We corrected Christopher Stiles’ affiliation
