according to this prof: 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.
can anyone explain ambient temperature "ambient temperature / pressure superconductor"
- Thread starter Obliviax
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"Superconductors are a big deal. Under normal circumstances, materials lose energy as they conduct electricity – that’s why, for instance, your mobile phone heats up when you charge it.....
But a superconductor doesn’t lose energy: it conducts perfectly, with no resistance.....
The big weakness, though, is that materials only become superconductors if they’re cooled to very low temperatures, and if they’re in environments with very high levels of pressure....."
If we were to invent a superconductor that didn’t require these low temperatures and high pressures, all bets would be off: we’d have ultra-efficient power grids, saving vast amounts of energy; we’d have cheaper medical imaging; we’d have more low-friction, super-fast “maglev” trains that float above the tracks; and we might even be able to develop ultra-fast quantum computers. A room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor has long been something of a Holy Grail for scientists.
There are sceptics....
Put this up there with fusion and cures for cancer. Someone claims a major breakthrough every couple years. Believe it when it is mass produced.
Ambient temperture means essentially room temperature or close to it. That is very important for practical applications. Ambient pressure means normal atmospheric pressure. This is a subtle point because some materials are superconductors only at pressures much higher than 1 atmosphere. I hope that helps.
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This is not the first time this achievement has been professed to have occurred. Don’t pop the champagne just yet. The applications for room temp/pressure superconductors are enormous.
Doesn’t ambient temp mean surrounding temperature? Say a phonic sensor on the ocean bottom must work at 33 degrees. Ambient temp on the James Webb Soacd Telescope would -348….. or whatever it is.
Control valves in a steam electric plant have an ambient temp over 400 degrees.
It can mean surrounding air temp but most instances when ambient is used they mean the normal temp/pressure you would keep your room.
This is a good summary and perhaps it's obvious but to supercool something takes a lot of energy. So it can be a self-defeating paradigm.
If they can really do it at ambient temps, that is HUGE. However, I recall vividly when researchers claimed to have done cold fusion in a lab sink and then no one else is able to replicate it. So we will wait to see if others can replicate this. If they can, it is a game changer.
