Room-Temperature Superconductivity Heats Up | Hacker News Reader

Room-Temperature Superconductivity Heats Up

cacm.acm.org

13 pointspseudolus12 comments

"(room-temp. superconductivity) would deliver nearly unlimited energy, turbocharge compute speeds, and introduce new and better ways to use computers and other electronics."

How so? It would save a few percent in transmission losses, make various quantum sensors possible/cheaper, just maybe, levitating trains, if it's cheap enough. Unlimited energy? lol.

I did a double-take when I checked the publication. I can't believe this is in the ACM journal.

> Consequently, the challenge—getting to superconductivity at temperatures above 0 degrees Kelvin (-273.15 degrees Celsius) at ambient pressure—remains a holy grail of physics and materials science.

This alone cannot be a correct statement, because the 3. Law of Thermodynamics states that you cannot reach 0 degrees Kelvin. So I think we already got some working superconductivity at room temperature by that definition.

The author clearly has not the knowledge to write over this so I stopped reading there. Also it cannot be a typo, since he even explains the corresponding degree in Celsius

After reading this first comment, is clear to me that it makes no sense to read. Flagged.

I would say it's more obviously wrong because I've seen examples of ceramic superconductors cooled by only liquid nitrogen. A quick google confirms that cuperate-perovskite ceramic superconductors have a critical temperature above 90K.

Room temperature superconductors would make a lot of new things possible, like smaller and better motors, generators, RF filters, low frequency antennas, etc.

No matter how slow you needed a load to turn, you could wind a motor to do it without gear reduction.

Gear trains in large scale wind turbines are a huge maintenance issue, and failure mode. With superconducting generators, they could be converted to direct drive.

The only limits are critical temperature and critical field strength.

> Finding a way to reduce energy loss as electricity travels over transmission lines and across wires would profoundly change society. It would deliver nearly unlimited energy

Um... No. Transmission lines is not a serious use-cases of super conductors. I believe current loss rates are in the 2-5% range. Super conductors do not provide energy in and of themselves -- though they are likely a critical component to nuclear fusion, which would.

Theoretically you could have one side of the world power the other side with solar panels for essentially infinite, cheap power.

It's only "cheap" if the room temperature semiconductor material is cheap and easy to maintain. Also, it's not like solar panels are free.

That’s true, but if it’s a matter of just laying some under sea cables, we’re already really good at that.

Cables made of cooper or optic fiber, both are flexible and can absorb hits and other nasty mechanical stuff.

Most (all?) modern superconductors are ceramics, so it's like having a huge stick made of the porcelain.

We’re talking about a hypothetical thing we don’t even know exists. Maybe it’s like glass that can be drawn out. Maybe you could have cables that are a series of straight ceramic rods with flexible interconnects made of other metals. It’s all just hypothetical.

Yep, but a room temperature, normal pressure, flexible cable and cheap is too optimistic. More than future technology is magic.

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