The past three weeks have witnessed the dramatic rise and fall of a new candidate for the holy grail of materials science: a superconductor that works at room temperature.
The public interest around LK-99 was a social phenomenon as much as a scientific one.
The miraculous potential of superconductors is that they carry electricity over large distances with perfect efficiency.
If we ever figure out how to manufacture them cheaply and make them work at room temperature rather than only at hundreds of degrees below zero, it would revolutionize our economy and help save the environment.
Superconductors can also achieve feats like powerful magnetic fields and levitation in midair, enabling new categories of electronic devices, computers and modes of transportation.
Organizations:
Twitter
Locations:
South Korea