Superconductors without heat a cool idea

Overnight, superconductors became one of the most searched topics online and a popular subject for discussion on social networking sites. Even on the streets, people were talking about them.

It all started after a research team of three scientists from the Republic of Korea published an academic paper claiming they have created a superconductor that operates at room temperature and room pressure. High-temperature semiconductors have been designed before, but they work under pressures as extreme as those found at the center of a planet, making them impractical for use. Other superconductors, such as those used in medical imaging systems, require extremely low temperatures.

Labs in China, Russia and the United States were verifying the claim of the ROK researchers. A Chinese lab even uploaded a video showing they had created LK-99 crystals but those were just traces, not enough sample size to carry out tests and confirm if it can be a superconductor at room temperature.

So it's still too early to go to town with headlines screaming "superconductor at room temperature found." Some scholars called the team's research "alchemist-style "because the methods they employed were simpler than similar researches in the past.

Until the superconductivity is confirmed, the media should leave the scientists alone to focus on their research. Of course, we wish the ROK team success and hope superconductors at room temperature have been found.

Once that happens, the loss of electricity via transmission will be negligible, which means a lot more energy will be there for use. It will also reduce heat accumulation in electric appliances, making it possible to do away with micro fans in computers and smartphones. The cooling down period itself could become history. We wish the scientists good luck in their endeavor.