Technology

I saw a tiktok about this that there were two separate papers published within the week as it looks like they were competing to take credit for the achievement, which would be unusual for bunk science.

Not an endorsement by any means, but def paying closer attention than I would have.

You're thinking about the University of Rochester group, which claimed room temperature high pressure superconductivity, and whose work was indeed riddled with fraud. This is a different group which claims room temperature and pressure superconductivity in a totally different material. They're sketchy in different ways, but have not previously been down to be frauds (to my knowledge). At most, a bit cranky in their understanding of the underlying theory. Which is why several groups are keeping an open mind and trying to replicate this.

I see what you did there ..

A superconductor is a special type of material that conducts electricity without losses, that means we can transfer electricity any distance we want without losing any of it to heat. That means we can make super efficient machines and even do things regular materials can't, like create super strong magnetic fields which we then can use to make MRI scans of humans.

More excitingly, superconductors do fucky things with magnetism, where you can get a magnet to lock in height and angle, essentially hovering, but still be able to follow a track, meaning levitating trains could become cheap and easy.

Traditionally superconductors have only worked in super cold and/or low pressure environments, like 1-2 degrees above absolute zero or at about 20 degrees above absolute zero but in a space like vacuum, which means it's quite difficult and expensive to keep them superconductors, and they have to keep small so we can keep all of it cool.

As we find ways to make superconductors for warmer temperatures, it's easier to cool them and thus use them at scale and for everyday use. Suddenly you don't need a train cart for cooling to keep hovering, and you could maybe even get a personal hover board or hover wheelys to zip around on.

Superconductors also have other weird and cool properties that could let us do even more cool things as we find out more and can make bigger things with them.