We live in the age of bubbles. In the technological world they grow as fast as they deflate. At the end of July, the world – if we can consider social networks a reasonable sample of it – was excited about a new material created by Korean researchers, called LK-99, which could be the first superconductor at room temperature, because the only ones that can be used so far have to be subjected, in laboratories, to extremely low temperatures.
The social and economic implications of a discovery like that would be enormous, because it would facilitate advances such as obtaining infinite and cheap energy through nuclear fusion, a new era for quantum computers, great savings in electrical energy that is now lost in transport by cable and many more wonders that now, without such a material, are very difficult to achieve.
After the Korean researchers' announcement, many teams of researchers around the world tried to replicate LK-99 using the method described by its discoverers, and along with some claiming to have succeeded, there has also been serious criticism that the material that was touted as a milestone of science is not a superconductor. The authors do not give up. They explain that their discovery is currently under independent supervision and that within a certain time there will be solid confirmation.
Awaiting final verification or disapproval, the LK-99 bubble appears to have deflated. Behind the discovery of a relatively easy-to-make room-temperature superconductor like LK-99 lies much more than scientific glory. Whoever succeeds will almost certainly win the Nobel prize in physics, but it also has colossal financial implications.
The strange thing about the LK-99 announcement is that Korean scientists know that if their product is not a superconductor, their credibility will be damaged. It would be in the interest of humanity that the discovery was real, perhaps that is why it went so viral. We expected a stroke of fate that would give us, like the statuette of The Maltese Falcon, the stuff dreams are made of.
