Room Temperature Superconductors

August 10, 2023
There has been a lot of news coverage in recent weeks regarding the claimed discovery of a room temperature superconductor, and a lot of justified skepticism from the scientific community. In my own personal opinion, I believe that this latest claim will not withstand rigorous review and will be disproven, just based on some of the preliminary information from other research teams. However that is a different topic - today I will instead be reviewing exactly what a room temperature superconductor is, and why it is one of the holy grails of material science.

Superconductors are materials that, when cooled below a specific temperature, exhibit two remarkable phenomena: specifically they exhibit zero electrical resistance (meaning that electric current can flow through the superconductor without loss) and the expulsion of magnetic fields (a property known as the Meissner effect. This is what permits the famous photos of superconductors floating above a magnetic or vice versa). These unique properties are governed by the phenomenon of Cooper pairing, where electrons form pairs due to lattice vibrations, allowing them to move through the material without scattering and loss of energy.

Traditionally, superconductivity has always been observed only at extremely low temperatures close to absolute zero (-273.15°C). However, scientists have spent decades attempting to develop materials whose critical temperatures are significantly higher, thereby expanding the potential applications of superconductors.

If someone were able to create a superconductor that operates at room temperature, then there would immediately be several very interesting technological breakthroughs.

Energy Transmission and Storage: Currently, a substantial fraction of the energy generated is lost during transmission due to resistance in power lines. Room temperature superconductors could enable the creation of highly efficient power grids, drastically reducing energy loss and increasing the stability and reliability of energy distribution. Moreover, superconductors could revolutionize energy storage systems, providing a way to store large amounts of electricity for extended periods without energy loss.

Transportation: The transportation sector could benefit immensely from room temperature superconductors. Electric vehicles equipped with superconducting materials could achieve unparalleled energy efficiency and range. Additionally, superconducting magnets could enhance the performance of maglev trains, enabling faster and more efficient transportation with minimal loss of energy.

Medical Applications: Room temperature superconductors would also revolutionize medical imaging technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At present MRI machines require liquid helium and very large and expensive magnets in order to operate. There is a worry that the requirements of supercooled magnets, which rely on liquid helium to keep cold, could one day render MRI machines inoperable due to a rapidly depleting supply of helium in the world. With room temperature superconductors, the next generation of MRI machines could be made much more compact, affordable, and perhaps even more powerful, providing higher resolution images for more accurate imaging and diagnostics.

Electronics and Computing: Room temperature superconductors could also enable ultrafast, energy-efficient electronics and computing devices. The absence of electrical resistance would eliminate the heat dissipation issues currently faced by semiconductor-based technologies, allowing for higher computational speeds and reduced power consumption.

Scientific Research: In addition to the previously mentioned technological advances, a true room temperature superconductor would also advance other fields of scientific research by enabling the construction of more powerful particle accelerators and experimental setups. Such an increase in these experiments could easily lead to groundbreaking discoveries in fundamental physics and materials science.

Clearly the search for room temperature superconductors could have the potential to reshape industries and technologies across the globe. Not only would a room temperature superconductor be a significant scientific achievement on its own, but it could also unlock a new era in transportation, medical imaging and scientific discovery, and likely countless other technological advances that haven't even been considered yet.

For now we will just have to wait for the scientific community to review this latest discovery, and determine if it is truly a room temperature superconductor or just one more failed attempt.
 

Detecting The Gravitational Wave Background

June 29, 2023
There is another historic announcement from the astronomy community today, with the first detection of the gravitational wave background.

Our current best theory for explaining gravity is the general theory of relativity, created by Einstein (and arguably by Hilbert at the same time), in which what we perceive as the force of gravity is actually a warping of spacetime itself. One of the predictions of Einstein's theory is that when a system changes, such as a massive object moving or two obj...
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A Multitude of Multiverses

May 10, 2023
One of the unexpected benefits of the explosion of superhero movies and television programs is the popularization of the "Multiverse". This is a topic that has been discussed by theoretical physicists for decades (It was actually a key component of some of my own research a few years ago, and continues to be one of my interests for future research.), but in recent years it has also become a topic of discussion among the general public. In fact the inspiration for today's article was a chat I ...
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A New Kind of Moon Mission

April 14, 2023
There is an interesting piece of news from the space exploration and planetary science community today (actually it was yesterday, but the news came out today), with the launch of the JUICE mission. This is a planetary probe that will spend the next eight years traveling through space to the planet Jupiter, where it will then explore three of the ice moons there before settling into a long term orbit of Ganymede. Although JUICE is not equipped with life detecting experiments, these three moon...
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The Ejected Black Hole

February 25, 2023
There is another interesting news story from the astronomy community, and this time it involves a rogue black hole.

What the astronomers believe that they have observed is actually a supermassive black hole, of the type believed to be at the center of most galaxies including our own, except this one appears to have been ejected from its host galaxy and is now travelling through space on its own.

Actually to be more precise, it isn't on its own. The other interesting discovery from this ob...
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A Stone Age Comet

January 13, 2023
To be fair, this comet isn't so much from the stone age itself, but that is the last time it was visible from the Earth.

For those of you who haven't been following this news story, there is currently a bright green comet passing through the inner solar system, and with any luck (and a bit of nice weather) will soon become visible to the naked eye.

Of course there are many comets passing by our solar system every year, but the the reason that comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is in the news is that it...
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Solving The Wire Filling Problem

January 7, 2023
As we start into a new year, and start to anticipate all of the amazing new discoveries and scientific theories that will come with it, I was trying to think of a good subject for the first article of 2023. I considered writing reviews of leading edge artificial intelligence or quantum computing techniques, or perhaps a discussion of some of the latest theories in astrophysics or exotic particle physics. In the end though, I decided that coming out of the holidays we should go with a bit of l...
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2022: A Year In Review

December 31, 2022
Here we are again, watching another year end and thinking back on everything that we have achieved over the last twelve months. It has been a year of turmoil for the world, with the ongoing pandemic, record setting economic problems, and more war and political scandals dominating the headlines. And yet for the scientific community, the year has not been too bad.

All through the year we have been seeing a steady stream of images from the new James Webb space telescope, with stunning images of d...
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Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2022


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A New Era Of Fusion

December 13, 2022
Just when you thought the year was over in terms of major scientific breakthroughs, we get another one. And this one has such widespread implications that it has the potential to change our society in general.

Today it was announced that scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have successfully completed a fusion reaction that produced excess energy.

Let me begin with a quick explanation of the science involved. Back in 1905, Albert Einstein published the special theory of rela...
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About Me


Dr. Chris Bird I am a theoretical physicist & mathematician, with training in electronics, programming, robotics, and a number of other related fields.

   


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