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So what kinds of cool stuff could be built with a room temperature superconductor? Better levitating trains?
by orblivion 3y ago
So what kinds of cool stuff could be built with a room temperature superconductor? Better levitating trains?
- ianmcgowan 3y agoFrom the article, "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."
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- swader999 3y agoNuclear fusion much easier, quantum computing, lossless electricity transmission, insane batteries. Dirt cheap MRIs, Basically welcome to the Jetsons. Much easier to mitigate climate change to the point where we can just deal with it.
- NotYourLawyer 3y agoThis would only solve one of the more minor problems with fusion. And what would it do for batteries?
- m463 3y agoI wonder if it would really mean a different sort of battery maybe like a super capacitor that doesn't discharge.
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- p_l 3y agoBattery grid storage would be dead in the water, as we already use Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage for grid stability and ultra-clean power in certain industries - except suddenly a huge chunk of issues involved in making large power SMES will disappear. They won't replace portable batteries soon, but room temperature superconducting will greatly increase efficiency in all areas of electricity, including higher power motors (the efficiency gains are good enough that superconducting motors and generators have been attempted despite needing supercooling). Also, a simple SMES could easily buffer future BEV truck charging station despite projected 1MW connection per charging truck.
- willis936 3y agoThe challenge of fusion is a collection minor problems that add up to machines that are unviable for our current level of industrial output. Eliminating one of the three key plant systems (cryo, vacuum, and heating) is not a molehill, especially when it is the second highest user of power (after heating).
- krastanov 3y agoRoom temperature superconductivity does not help with quantum computing. The transmons or atoms or ions need to be cold so that they do not get "flipped", not because of the need for superconductors.
- bick_nyers 3y agoDo quantum computers not have a need for strong magnetic fields? Or is the magnetic field requirement weak enough that it can be serviced by non-superconducting magnets?
- sudosysgen 3y agoThe computer needs to be super cold anyways so you might as well use a regular superconductor.
- simmanian 3y agoHow would this make climate change easier to deal with? Because it would make everything that much more efficient? I'm honestly trying to understand the implications.
- BWStearns 3y agoLong distance power transmission suffers losses from resistance. Superconductors don't suffer losses. With superconductors you could stick a giant wind farm in the ocean and cover the Sahara in solar panels. Run distribution lines from there to everywhere else and pretty much call it a day on the planet's power needs. (lots of things glossed over, not the least of which are social and geopolitical but you get the idea)
- nate_martin 3y agoIt takes energy to remove carbon from the atmosphere. With abundant energy from fusion you could just remove the carbon added by humans.
- swader999 3y agoBatteries and nuclear fusion. With easy energy, you can pull the carbon out of the air.
- CyberDildonics 3y agoNuclear fusion, quantum computing, insane batteries Why do you think any of these are true?
- hatsunearu 3y agoThe last line of the paper says this discovery will lead to a new age of humanity, and they aren't joking.
- willis936 3y agoLead is used in many places. You should avoid checking what battery is in your ICE vehicle. What matters is how lead is handled. With hope, mankind will never lead a generation the way burning millions of gallons of leaded fuel did. Certainly no use of a lead superconductor could hope to accomplish that level of damage.
- kube-system 3y agoThis is a leading example of how homographs can lead us astray.
- hatsunearu 3y agoI think you replied to the wrong parent?
- tamimio 3y ago??
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]