Solid-state physics very rarely goes viral. But that is what happened when a group of researchers at Korea University, in Seoul, announced on July 22nd that they had discovered a “room-temperature superconductor”, a material dubbed lk-99. They published a pair of preliminary, non-peer-reviewed papers. If the researchers are right, it would be one of the biggest discoveries in physics in the past few decades. A Nobel prize would be a mere formality. But history provides plenty of reasons for caution. Labs around the world are rushing to test the results. What exactly is so exciting?
This Reuters article offers additional skepticism, apparently even the best scientists can be fooled: Superconductor claims spark investor frenzy, but scientists are skeptical
