Room-Temperature Superconductor
The First Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor
This article is from Arvix, an open-access archive scholarly articles. Not peer-reviewed.
The following is commentary from Alex Kaplan on Twitter, now X.
Today might have seen the biggest physics discovery of my lifetime. I don’t think people fully grasp the implications of an ambient temperature & pressure superconductor. Here’s how it could totally change our lives.
1. 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.
2. 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 replicate within days-weeks.
3. Nuclear fusion reactors rely on superconductors for plasma confinement. Modern designs use RBCO/YBCO superconductors cooled with LN2 or Liquid He, creating a huge temperature gradient and challenging operation. Ambient superconductors enable a whole host of new reactor designs
4. Quantum computers use superconductors to preserve coherence in qubits. Small changes in temperature and pressure can cause the entire QC to fail during operation. Imagine a room temperature quantum computer on your desktop – now possible.
5. 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.
6. Your iPhone won’t overheat when playing subway surfer with a youtube video in the corner anymore! Ultra-efficient computer chips will have 0 resistive losses during operation with superconductors. No need for cooling fans!!
7. And, the common ones: super-cheap MRI machines, MagLev trains everywhere, and a super efficient electric grid.
8. I cannot contain my excitement. It feels like January of 2020 with a huge wave coming that no one realizes yet, but in a much better way. What a time to be alive!!
My comment: every science fiction writer and reader worth the name should be wide-eyed with wonder at this development. It is on par with the first heavier-than-air flight of the Wright Brothers.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
