Do we have a General Science thread? This can get moved to where ever it may be most appropriate . . . But, this is *potentially* amazing. (I'm looking at you, Cold Fusion scammers) https://www.iflscience.com/first-ro...uperconductor-achieved-claim-scientists-70001 From what I've read, it won't take but a few weeks to know if this is legit and can be replicated.
If online "journalism" has taught me one thing, it's to be forever skeptical about major claims like this. This is when it's fun to hit the heavily moderated and hard core science subreddits to watch them just tear the shit out of the story and any papers attached to it.
Yeah, it's sketchy truth, to be sure. Not too long ago, another claim similar to this had to be retracted. But, unlike some other "discoveries," it seems like this can be ruled repeatable or not fairly quickly. I'm absolutely skeptical, though.
From what I hear online, it seems like this is one of those, "Oh my god, why didn't I think of doing that, this could actually work" scenarios. Thankfully, like someone else mentioned, the experiment is being worked on and we should get a thumbs up or thumbs down within a very short amount of time. This would be one of those earth changing discoveries where we go from horse and buggy and whale fat lamps to the combustion engine and electricity.
I'm sure there are tons of applications, but the one I think would be revolutionary would be lack of resistance to transmit power without energy lost to resistance. Basically, lots of things that get hot (and therefore either lose energy and have to be cooled; or get too hot and can't be cooled cheaply), from computers to electrical motors, would suddenly be super efficient.
Another garage night is underway with beer and edibles. Last week I didn’t head for home until after midnight, and got stopped by a cop on my way home. Walking. Maybe it was the lateness of the hour, most likely it was because I was 4 sheets to the wind and was having difficulty putting one foot in front of the other. By the time he caught up to me I was on the sidewalk in front of my house. He asked where I was heading (I pointed). Then, shining a light in my face he asked “are you sure you don’t need any help?”. See you again this evening officer.
This morning, I got some vague directions to find a backhoe with a bad stabilizer cylinder. Well, I drove a little too far, and found the secret onion burial ground...