Superconductor Smackdown: Breakthrough or ‘Probable Fraud’? (#309)

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Here come maglev trains, fusion reactors, cheap MRI scanners in every clinic…. Or not?

Since the discovery of superconductors in 1911 by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, earning the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics, they have been the subject of much fascination and inquiry. Some of the greatest minds in physics have grappled with how superconductivity works to drive electrical resistance to 0. The 1972 Nobel prize in Physics was awarded to John Bardeen, Leon Neil Cooper, and John Robert Schrieffer "for their BCS theory of superconductivity. Now the race is on to get the highest temperature superconductor possible; another Nobel Prize was awarded just for getting the temperature up to 35K or -396 Fahrenheit! So superconducting has remained impractical, until now... Maybe! The HUGE claim: zero resistance, at temperatures up to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Is it a scientific breakthrough, or is it very probably fraud?

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:01:11 Eisenhower’s warning https://youtu.be/mHDgsh6WPyc?t=562
• 00:01:55 Jorge Hersch and High Tc Superconductors
• 00:04:32 Conflict between Hersch and Diaz
• 00:06:25 What is a superconductor?
• 00:20:45 Cooper Pairs and Quantum Effects
• 00:25:00 100 years of superconducting materials
• 00:28:13 The experiment and the diamond anvil!
• 00:33:31 The Unearthly Materials Controversy
• 00:40:00 Academic Freedom and Moderation
• 00:43:26 Conclusions and Takeaways

Sources

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05742-0
• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05294-9
• https://www.unearthlymaterials.com/
• https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/17/unearthly-materials-superconductors-investors/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALsG2YvRnsu4H0m6ds6fJexDuCNHetasRbCFcu_DbioYuWHi0WKx7idn5wM3Uz2Ko12Zc-4U6SuufQHLbq-QbdfCqzDwEhObBA4bw9BB_rVisKKZTufyfmbPBi_4Oe1kOnBGVIdFjlK9SAOc0yAGRPAPfN1LIdvZ5bdTutI9wP5b
• https://undark.org/2023/03/27/a-potential-triumph-in-physics-dogged-by-accusation-and-doubt/

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