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Heated Debate Rises over Hints of Superconductivity Above Boiling Temperatures
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Havoc 5y agoTo what end? Surely room temp at atmosphere is the ultimate prize? Room temp has already been achieved so I would have thought lowest pressure is now the metric that matters
- xoa 5y ago>Surely room temp at atmosphere is the ultimate prize? First, the science and engineering is interesting regardless. Better understanding of superconductivity and how we can achieve it will be helpful in applying it anywhere. Second, while RT is clearly a huge deal hotter is always better if possible. It means it can be used with less cooling in more extreme environments which would further expand the possibilities in industry. Just as there has been effort to make (and you can buy) electronics that are functional in extreme environmental and high radiation conditions that would kill consumer kit. Also, "achieved" is doing quite a bit of work in your second sentence. Other material properties, including as you say operating pressure but also more basic stuff like pure flexibility or strength are important in how it can be used in practice right? Research pushing other limits may pay off down the road in new ideas elsewhere. Obviously speculative, it may not, but it's well worth pursuing many avenues in such a potentially valuable area even if most are dead ends.
- ianai 5y agoRT superconductivity has been discovered? When/where/what?
- magicalhippo 5y agoAs I understand it, superconductors aren't quite as binary as the media portrays them as. The temperature, current density and magnetic fields they can tolerate while remaining superconducting varies between the various kinds of superconductors. Most interesting use-cases outside the lab would involve at least non-trivial current densities, so that's one metric where one might still want to search for a better material even though one already exists.
- willis936 5y agoLTS are pretty binary compared to HTS. Look at the resistance vs. temperature plots of different cables at a given current and magnetic field. Additionally, quench propagation is much slower in HTS so safe current dumping has a lot more time between quench detection and thermal runaway. https://youtu.be/xJ2h3vbOag4&t=21m58s https://youtu.be/xJ2h3vbOag4&t=21m58s
- magicalhippo 5y agoBinary was a poor choice of words I guess. My point was that if the current material only supports very low current densities at this high temperature, then that restricts the use-cases for it. I feel much of the popular science press makes it sound like all superconductors are equal, apart from the critical temperature.
- willis936 5y agoAh, yes. If superconductors were actual magic and had infinite current and magnetic field capacities our society would look pretty different right now. :)
- derefr 5y agoInside fusion reactors? They’re pretty hot.
- Trouble_007 5y ago>To what end?< : Different Horses for different Courses Liquid Nitrogen : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen Search: 'High Pressure Liquid Nitrogen Superconductors' @DDG : <https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q='High Pressure Liquid Nitrogen Superconductors' https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q='High Pressure Liquid Nit...> Railgun : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun >A railgun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles.<* Pentagon to build nuclear micro-reactor to power far-flung-bases : https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/04/15/pentagon-to-build-nuclear-microreactor-to-power-far-flung-bases/ https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/04/15/... Scramjet : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet Just a Thought. Edit: Add; Russia-Ukraine Conflict Prompted US to Develop Autonomous Drone-Swarms And 1,000-Mile Cannon : https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russia-ukraine-conflict-prompted-u-s-to-develop-autonomous-drone-swarms-1-000-mile-cannon/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/russia-ukraine-co... - Edit:2 fixed @DDG search URL, truncated in first edit!
- DiabloD3 5y agoSomebody waited their entire career to write that headline.
- dvh 5y ago"Foot Heads Arms Body" On 22 June 1978, The Guardian ran an article with the headline "Foot hits back on Nazi comparison". Reader David C. Allan of Edinburgh responded with a letter to the editor, which the paper ran on 27 June. Decrying the headline's apparent pun, Allen suggested that, if Foot were in future to be appointed Secretary of State for Defence, The Guardian might cover it under the headline "Foot Heads Arms Body". The belief later gained currency that The Times actually had run the headline. Some decades later, Martyn Cornell recalled the story as true, saying he had written the headline himself as a Times subeditor around 1986. The headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive, which includes every day's newspaper from 1785 into the 21st century.
- pcl 5y agoThat reminds me of the classic "Headless Body in Topless Bar" headline: https://nypost.com/2015/06/09/new-york-post-editor-and-film-critic-vincent-musetto-dies-at-74/ https://nypost.com/2015/06/09/new-york-post-editor-and-film-...
- Trouble_007 5y agoHigh-Temperature Superconductors (high-Tc or HTS) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductivity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconducti...
- mrtnmcc 5y agoMay be relevant to theories about the Earth's core and magnetic field.
- Animats 5y agoRoom temperature superconductivity reportedly appeared at 267 gigapascals, more than 2,400 times the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean. That's a lot of pressure. That's like 40x the pressure needed to make diamonds.
- iancmceachern 5y agoIt's funny, this is like a how many engineers does it take joke. The whole point in finding a room temperature super conductor is that it's difficult to maintain those low temperatures in practice. So if we want to put super conductors in practice, we need to figure out how to do it a different, more practical way. 40x the pressure needed to make diamonds doesn't seem practical. Maybe there is some material property magic like thermal quenching or tempering that could allow for a final product that has those kind of internal pressures in a steady state object. You see this everywhere in the engineering world. I'm not saying this particular work will not lead somewhere, just that it is an example of a broader challenge I've seen in engineering, bridging the gap between practical every day use and research.
- s1artibartfast 5y agoI think you see it everywhere because you essentially described exploratory science vs engineering. First humans understand how the physical world behaves, then they see if that knowledge is usable.
- jl2718 5y agoApparently we can get to 20GPa with strained silicon (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1501382 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1501382). Diamond can theoretically get to 225 GPa (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13378-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13378-w). Maybe cubic boron nitride.
- nootropicat 5y agoWhile stable high temperature superconductors would usher in a scifi revolution alone, their critical magnetic field is also very interesting. Not an expert in the field, but from what I gather 200T would be enough for car sized proton-boron fusion power plants.
- 8bitsrule 5y agoRelated: Physics 2019 article "A Prediction for “Hot” Superconductivity" [https://physics.aps.org/articles/v12/96 https://physics.aps.org/articles/v12/96] (followed by 9 citations)
- nceasy 5y agocan anyone point some article or describe (if and) how is machine learning helping scientists to find new superconductors with higher temperatures?