this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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There is a summary of replication attempts on Wikipedia, half of them don't look good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99#Replication_attempts
A hundred non-replications can't overcome one good solid replication, though. If there's an ingot of the stuff sitting there levitating and conducting with zero resistance for all to see then all those other labs just screwed up in some way when they tried making or testing it.
Or, more likely, LK-99 isn't actually a superconductor. Things like this should be able to be replicated by peers given the correct formulas. However, so far, even when other labs have correctly synthesized LK-99 (as confirmed by x-ray), no superconducting properties have been found. Further, the fact that the original authors aren't willing to provide their original samples to other universities is very suspect.
Trust, I want there to be a room temperature superconductor too, but after seeing the preliminary results from other labs I'm even more doubtful.
It's funny how people were jumping all over Lee et al.'s original paper for not having been peer-reviewed, but these preliminary unpublished failure-to-replicate after a week and a half are "more likely."
This very thread is about a partial success to replicate Lee et al.'s results.
Come back to me when there's actual evidence - there's none now. Levitation does not equal superconductor. No other superconductive properties have been found by peers yet. This is how science works: it's not a superconductor until it is proven and replicated by peers.
You won't need me to come to you, there will be prominent headlines.
In the meantime, if that's what you're waiting for then why are you in threads like this one? As I said, it's been a week and a half. You're not going to get peer-reviewed replication in a week in a half.
About those "prominent headlines", maybe "LK-99 isn’t a superconductor" wasn't in your list?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02585-7
Sure, I'll take that bet. Full results will be available by the end of the month. You'll see me back here either way!