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⚽🧲 Soccer or superconductor?
I don't keep up with the soccer World Cup. Instead, I follow the possible room-temperature superconductor breakthrough.
Today might have seen the biggest physics discovery of my lifetime. I don't think people fully grasp the implications of an ambient temperature / pressure superconductor. Here's how it could totally change our lives.
— Alex Kaplan (@alexkaplan0) July 26, 2023
The speculation if it is really true.
I have bad news. I am growing increasingly convinced that LK-99 is simply diamagnetic, rather than superconducting. It lines up well with existing evidence (susceptibility, levitation, lack of heat capacity singularity, etc.)
Expectation vs. reality. https://t.co/1Rh26ZV4Nj pic.twitter.com/tWhVAVu0Yq— Alex Kaplan (@alexkaplan0) July 27, 2023
The attempts to repeat it in other labs.
First claimed successful replication of LK-99
Accomplished by a team at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and posted 30 minutes ago.
Why this is evidence:
The LK-99 flake slightly levitates for both orientations of the magnetic field, meaning it is not simply a… pic.twitter.com/bh0x9oqaz2— Andrew Cote (@Andercot) August 1, 2023
And even betting.
Prediction markets for LK99 superconductivity now above 50% https://t.co/4Umd1A9eaM pic.twitter.com/q6O0RP1aO9
— Theo Sanderson (@theosanderson) August 1, 2023
Now I'm waiting for the final whistle and whether I should cheer or cry.
It is not easy to keep up with AI development. I like The Rundown newsletter. Serious and easy to overview the latest that has happened.
Now we are back to the normal pace. News every day at warpnews.org and the newsletter every Wednesday.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
Other articles
🚢 How a box and a truck driver made the world smaller and the global economy bigger
Loading a medium-sized ship with loose cargo cost $5.86 per ton in 1956. If you instead used containers for the cargo, the cost dropped to 16 cents. This breakthrough dramatically changed the world in the second half of the 20th century.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
🔥 Fewer fires in electric cars compared to fossil-fueled cars (in the country with the highest share of electric cars)
"Electric cars rarely catch fire, and much less frequently than gasoline and diesel cars," says Kjetil Solberg from the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB).
🌧️ Solar panels? No, RAIN panels
Raindrops can be a source of clean, renewable energy. A new design mimics solar panels, boosting efficiency in raindrop energy collection.
💉 A leap forward in the battle against malaria: 18 million vaccine doses for 12 African nations
Over the last three years, a significant decrease in child deaths due to malaria was observed, owing to the world's first malaria vaccine. Now 12 African countries are to receive 18 million doses of the malaria vaccine.
🦾 OpenAI aims to solve AI alignment in four years
OpenAI forms a team to align superintelligent AI with human values. And the company is dedicating 20 percent of OpenAI's computing power to it.
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