A tentative but less nebulous step toward superconductor-fueled electronics.
I hope so. Room temperature superconductivity would make so many things economically viable overnight…
Superconductors basically means you can run your PC’s processor at 1% of its current energy draw. So now take a mobile phone processor, recreate it with superconductors, and you suddenly have a device that can do a massive amount of computations for years on a single AA battery
Not just that, but you also have things like MRI, CT, and PET imaging in the medical world that would suddenly not need liquid helium and nitrogen for operation. Scientific instruments like NMR and high resolution FT-MS machines will stop using all the liquid helium and nitrogen. It will save are rapidly disappearing helium resources and allow for that to be used for other things.
Then there is mass transit that can be developed. The list goes on.
Would majorly increase the efficiency of electricity transmission and also computer processors and other electronics and also all sorts of applications we have for very strong magnets.
Super conductive materials have essentially zero electrical resistance but until now we’ve only been able to make materials super conductive in extreme cold and/or under extreme pressure. Resistance is responsible for the heat processors and other electronics generate. It also majorly caps how far and how much electricity you can transmit over a given distance without a lot of wasted electricity or the lines overheating and failing.
Would have huge implications for energy infrastructure and generally just making a ton of the electrical devices we use much much more efficient.
Also they can be incredibly strong electromagnets and would really beef up our maglev tech for things like trains. They also have a lot of utility for quantum computing. You could expect to see computing power across the board to skyrocket in the coming years if this is for real.
Pretty exciting. It would really be one of the most groundbreaking developments in materials science and I guess you would say physics in a while.
Super simple ELI5:
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Electronics (computers/phones/laptops etc) work by running electricity through stuff (“conductors”).
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While moving, the electricity “bumps” into stuff on the way. That’s bad, and only the reason electronics get warm. Electric energy is turned into heat instead of doing its job.
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In a _super_conductor, electricity does not bump into stuff. Everything works smoothly, no waste heat. Batteries would last longer. Heat damage would no longer be (as much) a concern. Basically, all-around better.
The warmest current conductor I’ve read about only worked at below -27 °C, I think, and needed huge pressure, like on the ocean floor. Others work at surface pressure but require even lower temps.
Benefits of safe, cheaply mass-produced, room-temperature, [EDIT: and workable] surface-pressure superconductors:
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Massively better battery life of everything.
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Much, much more efficient use of anything that needs electricity, reducing cost of everything that needs electricity.
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Extremely efficient energy transfer (power lines etc can lose a lot of energy on the way), making electricity itself cheaper.
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Some inventions are suddenly much more feasible (Maglev trains and hoverboards are examples I’ve seen mentioned, but don’t ask me about the science behind that.)
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Electronics can become smaller, yet again. It would probably make Smartwatches and “Spatial Computing” devices more feasible.
EDIT: Based on one YT video, I’ll add that the material also needs to be able to worked into various forms and solid/stable enough not to crumble over time. Apparently, there are some technically great superconductors already, but they crumble apart or lose their superconductor status if electricity flows through them the wrong way, or something, making them useless.
Right now a lot of the electricity we send from A to B gets lost as heat energy, among other sciency shit. So for every watt of power you use, it takes more than that to get it to you. You’re phone heats up because of this. Computers all require ventilation and heat sinks because of this. LED screens are even warm and they’re meant to be as not warm as possible.
Super conductors at room temperature addresses that fundamental problem of moving electricity.
This doesn’t even touch the magnet factor. Super conducting magnets can levitate. This is literal cars without wheels territory. Maglev roads. Railgun shuttle launches. The abundance of the materials one question is also highly promising. We’re not talking rare earth.
If this is true it’s the biggest discovery since the transistor, no sweat.
Well, a superconductor as the name might imply is a super conductor, meaning electricity flows very well through it with negligible resistance. This means generators of all types can be placed further away from where people are, especially renewables, like geothermal or offshore wind/water farms.
There’s also the possibility of commercial mag-lev that could revolutionize high speed rail.
