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Comment by hinkley | Hacker News Reader

I saw a video the other day that pointed out that the breakdown current for their sample was 260 mA. Now there's a lot of things you can do with 260mA, but I don't believe high-tesla electromagnets are in that list, so no MRIs, no fusion, and probably no electromotive devices (generators, motors).

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I don't know much about superconductivity, but if 0.25A is the limit no matter the cross-section of conductor, you can multiply/parallelize the conductors - i.e. series of "microconductors", each carrying 0.25A, which would add up to whatever you want?

But now we know its possible, maybe they can figure out the structures that make it work and develop better materials?

I'm hoping for something that isn't made entirely out of a superfund site material, personally.

Unless I misunderstand what you mean / what the stuff is made of, this seems like a huge exaggeration... lead isn't friendly, sure, but it isn't that dangerous? There are worse materials that are in common use. (And we use lead in plenty of places already)

Personally hopeful it inspires a “gold rush” of funding materials research to get LK99 to a supremely useful spot

The effective cross-sectional area of the original sample could well be minuscule. (I assume that, if a room temperature superconductor has been found, it constitutes a tiny fraction of the sample.)

It took 80 years to go from a crude prototype at Bell Labs to Apple announcing the M1. We just need to know it’s possible. The rest will follow.

The M1 is just as significant as an ESP32 or Celeron in the scheme of things.

Isn’t the introduction of the 4004 in 1971 a better comparison? while that was still 24 years since the Bell labs discovery, we have much better scientific, manufacturing, logistical and mining ecosystems within industry and research today.

If there’s a compelling reason to do so, governments will find ways to accelerate the development of those ecosystems from decades to years (probably more like a decade).

I don't get it, is the M1 supposed to be some pinnacle achievement in the history of the integrated circuit lmao

I assure you if 260mA room temperature and pressure superconducting wire can be consistently produced we’ll be living in the future.

> we’ll be living in the future

This is a tautological statement if I ever saw one!

Let me explain what I meant: the transistor changed everything and we’re still reaping unexpected benefits, see LLMs this year. My bet is such a superconductor would be the same - 50 years from its creation we’d still be finding new ways of putting it to use.

The current is related to the cross-sectional area of the (super)conductor. Not sure how big their sample was, but the solution is thicker and more cables.

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