> The raw materials are fairly cheap, and the production involves heating it to hundreds of degrees centigrade for 24-48 hours
Can you also ELI5 why this seemed like such a hard problem to solve up until now? Was it something hiding in plain site?
Can you also ELI5 why this seemed like such a hard problem to solve up until now? Was it something hiding in plain site?
For simple systems, such as some low-temperature superconductors and idealized models, researchers can sometimes make analytical approximations or derive simplified equations that describe the behavior of the material. But for most materials, the equations are too complex to solve analytically, and researchers rely on numerical methods, computational simulations, and empirical data to understand and predict material properties.
It's similar to the reason we can't find easy analytical solutions to other complex systems (like models trained via Machine Learning), there are just too many complex factors and interactions to take into account.