science

There is no room for a mistake or massaging data here. The authors have photos and video of magnetic levitation. It is either outright fraud, or true. You are claiming without evidence that these people intentionally faked the paper and it is entirely made up (which could well be true, but is a much stronger claim than shoddy statistical analysis, and much easier to prove).

As to prior work. All three authors have previous publications on perovskites. If the trick for room temperature superconductivity turns out to be putting a low temperature superconducting material in a crystal lattice where it doesn't have enough room (which is a concept consistent with existing literature), then it seems reasonable that a perovskite researcher would discover it first as there is not really any special knowledge of superconductivity beyond the basics required (ie. The what is exceedingly simple if it turns out it works, the how is hard and is not the domain of a superconductivity expert).

Extraordinary claims and all that, but none of your criticisms are valid.

Peer review is great and all, but they have video. This is either real or outright fraud. I’m don’t know what they’d gain from fraud here, as this is such big news it will be replicated quickly.

Very little chance of being real

And yet no other peer reviewed science journals are reporting this. Suspicious at best.

This is published an ArXiv. That means it's a manuscript that hasn't passed peer review yet. There is a very real chance that the reviewers will find errors in the manuscript that change the interpretation of the data. In other words, I would take anything on ArXiv with a huge grain of salt

There was a recent 'discovery' that seems to have gone very quiet already this year, iirc the results couldn't be reproduced. So I guess we have to wait and see if another team can reproduce these results. A line I found interesting was:

"The superconductivity of LK-99 originates from minute structural distortion by a slight volume shrinkage (0.48 %), not by external factors such as temperature and pressure"

'A slight volume shrinkage' kinda sounds like the results of pressure to me? I'm not equipped to fully understand all the terms they use, but it sounds like they've found a way to apply pressure internally in the material, without using pressure in the environment.

Something I'd like to point out is that this material is inherently hard to bring to high purity. It relies on a copper atom jumping into a higher energy configuration by chance which is not going to happen often since everything always tends towards the lowest energy configuration possible. Even if you wanted to make a low purity sample and refine it, the supposed material properties depend on the crystal structure, so you can't melt it down, you can't crush it and bring the powder back to a solid, it eludes most conventional ways of purifying a material.

If it's real, we're not going to see any mass production for a long time. It'll be harder to mass produce than graphene by quite a bit, and we see how long that's taking.

For anyone curious, I asked ChatGPT What would be the implications if true, and here was it's reply:

As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, there had been no verified room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductors. However, if such a claim were to be validated and a room-temperature superconductor were indeed discovered, it would have profound implications across various fields:

1. Energy Efficiency: Room-temperature superconductors would revolutionize power generation, transmission, and storage. Power grids and electrical devices that utilize superconductors could operate without energy losses due to resistance, resulting in significantly improved energy efficiency.
2. Transportation: Room-temperature superconductors could be used in magnetic levitation (Maglev) trains, making them more practical and cost-effective to implement. Maglev trains already have lower friction and energy consumption than traditional trains, and with superconductors, their performance could be further enhanced.
3. Medical Applications: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines that use superconducting magnets would become more accessible and cheaper to operate. This could lead to increased availability of high-quality medical imaging and improved healthcare diagnostics.
4. Electronics: Room-temperature superconductors could enable the development of extremely fast and energy-efficient electronic devices, leading to advancements in computing and communication technologies.
5. Scientific Research: Superconductors are essential for high-energy physics research, so a room-temperature superconductor would potentially revolutionize particle accelerators, allowing for more accessible and cost-effective facilities for scientific exploration.
6. Renewable Energy: The efficiency of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power could be greatly improved by using superconductors in their power generation and storage systems.
7. Transportation Electrification: Electric vehicles (EVs) could benefit from room-temperature superconductors, allowing for faster charging and longer-range capabilities.
8. Industrial Applications: Superconductors could enhance the efficiency of motors, generators, and other industrial equipment, leading to reduced energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
9. Aerospace: Aerospace technologies could benefit from lightweight, energy-efficient superconducting components, making space exploration and aviation more economical and sustainable.
10. Scientific Understanding: The discovery of room-temperature superconductors could potentially lead to new insights into the fundamental principles of condensed matter physics, offering a deeper understanding of quantum mechanics and material properties.

It's important to note that claims of room-temperature superconductors need to be carefully scrutinized and independently verified by the scientific community. If such a discovery were confirmed, it would be a groundbreaking achievement with far-reaching implications for various industries and scientific research.