Levitation is to be expected for any superconductor when it's in a superconducting state; that part is banal. The big question is whether it's actually a superconductor at RTP. Their results are strong enough that it's unlikely to be a mistake, though fraud is possible too (although it is so easily uncovered given the simplicity of preparing the material and the strength of the reported effects that fraud seems almost pointless since it'll be uncovered immediately).

The recipe in the paper is so simple that it's giving me Pons-Fleischmann vibes. It reads more like an entry from an alchemist's journal, reproducible with chemicals and equipment you could buy on eBay or Amazon.

So, yeah: big if true.

Silicon is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and for thousands of years humans had no idea what would be possible with very controlled etching of it.

Mildly-topical Terry Pratchett amusement quote, since it involves a society that has overlooked the power of silicon plus the potential of superconductivity:

> Detritus blinked. There was a tinkle of falling ice. Odd things were happening in his skull. Thoughts that normally ambulated sluggishly around his brain were suddenly springing into vibrant, coruscating life. And there seemed to be more and more of them.

> 'My goodness,' he said, to no-one in particular.

> This was a sufficiently un-troll-like comment that even Cuddy, whose extremities were already going numb, stared at him.

> 'I do believe,' said Detritus, 'that I am genuinely cogitating. How very interesting!'

> 'What do you mean?'

> More ice cascaded off Detritus as he rubbed his head.

> 'Of course!' he said, holding up a giant finger. 'Superconductivity!'

> 'Wha'?'

> 'You see? Brain of impure silicon. Problem of heat dissipation. Daytime temperature too hot, processing speed slows down, weather gets hotter, brain stops completely, trolls turn to stone until nightfall, ie, colder-temperature,however,lowertemperatureenough,brain operatesfasterand—'

> [...] Detritus sat down again. Life was so simple, when you really thought about it. And he was really thinking. He was seventy-six per cent sure he was going to get at least seven degrees colder.

-- Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett

I wonder if anyone has tried to contact one of the authors to confirm the paper is legitimate (i.e. someone isn't spoofing the author's names in order to create chaos).

Good thinking. I'm guessing journalists lurk here so we'll probably find out soon enough.

This isn't too different from how conventional high temperature superconductors are made.[0] A converted pottery kiln can be used to make them

[0]https://www.greenoptimistic.com/make-superconductor-home/

Just give it to me straight - when will the levitation give us hoverboards?

As long as you only want them to hover over a magnet...

Assuming the lift is there or the magnets are strong enough, it would be plausible to have an electromagnetic hover skate park where you could pay by the hour, and possibly even future X-game like events where the boards and riders could move in any direction they can get acceleration in.

Well that would be very, very cool.

I believe I saw a video of a hoverboard that worked over a carefully constructed magnetic skatepark...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KtzyZKSuls

I wonder how big of a superconductor you'd need to use Earth's magnetic field.

I want them to have enough current passing through them in a rod shape that it will run the current against the Earth's magnetic field to cause vertical movement.

This gave me a giggle to think about - mind expanding on what you’re thinking of using Thai scenario for?

The GP wants to lock the skateboard on the East/West direction, of course.

When we discover if gravitons exist or not and how to produce/manipulate them so that we can negate the effect of gravity on an object.

Superconductors will typically levitate if placed above a magnet, and vice versa. Magnets are weird--superconductors even more so. I assume that's what they were referring to?

Edit: Judging by Fig 4, which has a large object conspicuously labeled "magnet", that's probably what they're referring to.

This whole experiment is quite reminiscent of an experiment I did in high school. We synthesized a high temperature superconductor (IIRC it was YBCO) by grinding some powders together with a mortal and pestle and baking the result. And we stuck it in a little cup of LN2 and floated a magnet on it. It really works!

This group used somewhat nastier powders, they had to cook parts of it in a vacuum, and they floated the result on a magnet instead of vice versa. And it only floated a bit. But they did it without any cooling!

All of those elements are so common - this should be easy to test. We'll see.

Any news yet?

You could almost make this stuff in a pizza oven.

I would guess that it'll take a month or two to repro the procedure. The paper was uploaded in the last week, so we're still probably a few weeks out on peer review.

One obvious application: your family doctor will have an MRI machine in her office, same for all physio clinics

MRI will get much cheaper, but you still need a good upper critical field and a proper access control (Zone 2/3/4) protocol. So probably not in very small buildings.

From what I can tell this material can't provide higher than 0.3T. We've had permanent magnet MRI at 0.3T but the drawbacks vs superconducting magnets are weight and lack of active shielding.

With room temperature superconductivity doesn't it become possible to turn the magnet on and off far more easily? MRIs would be much safer if they were only energized during the actual imaging process.

To turn the magnet off you need to get the current out, I don't see why raising the temperature would make that easy.

Dump it in a bank of capacitors, send it back when you need it. Or in a superconducting loop...

How does the temperature come into play?

What are the failure modes for a superconductor MRI? Could it cause a resonance cascade?

Sign me up, I'd like to be one of the biped critters with giant mouths on their stomachs. Short pipeline, very efficient.

That description sounds like the F'lickta in Marathon 2, was it also something in Half Life?

At least now the silo doors will open by sliding on superconductors.

I think "superconductor MRI" is redundant.

The failure modes would mostly be the same as for the big ones: sucking in metal chairs if you're not careful.

I hope I never find out which is worse of chairs vs. piercings…

I hope I never witness a resonance cascade, let alone, create one.

They are already superconducting and using liquid helium to cool. They have failure modes of spilling gas out into the room (patient and operators have to evacuate.)

Not so fast... These superconductors although revolutionary loose superconductivity in high magnetic fields (or with high currents).

If this proves true I'd see their use more in electronic circuits. Novel sensors etc rather than classic high power high field uses people dream about when the words "room temperature superconductivity" gets thrown about.