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this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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A practical superconductor is a huge deal, it would drastically change the way we deal with electrical power distribution and electromechanical applications. So any development is going to be big news. Though we're not talking about an actual working conductor, it's just excitement over research advancement, yeah? I've seen this kind of "big news" before in other tech sectors and time often proves it unworthy. If it does present a big step toward a practical superconductor that's great, but I wouldn't count any eggs yet.
I would say this is likely not a practical super conductor... But it may well be the first ever room temperature super conductor.
The first semi-conductors were not practical either, but we can all see where that led!
It led to the LED!
Yes of course it would be a big deal if they create one to begin with. However if it's difficult and expensive to produce, that's not much help. It has to be mass producible and inexpensive to have industrial significance. I mean we already have expensive solutions. Don't need any more of those.
I don't know that semiconductors are a good parallel. Growing the crystals dates back to the early 1900s and was never an expensive or technologically difficult process. Doping silicon to create devices like diodes and transistors was something new, but was not exceedingly expensive or a great technological challenge. The migration to chips which require lithographic doping was more of a challenge.
In any case semiconductor devices were practical shortly after development. One of the first consumer products that used them was the "transistor radio" which was inexpensive and came out shortly after invention of the technology.
The benefits of a room temp super conductor mean that it would be produced at scale for price points well above standard. It's that big a deal in performance improvement.
The paper's method is fairly messy, low yield, and brand new... But it's also not that complex of metallurgy afaik. I would not be surprised to see iterations on method that scale well.
Regardless: if it's true then it proves it's possible... Which wasn't guaranteed until now.