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A comment on LK-99 isn’t a superconductor – how science sleuths solved the mystery. Parent comment

Re:LK-99 isn’t a superconductor – how science sleuths solved... by imiric on Wednesday August 16, 2023 @06:54PM (#37154953)
> This whole process has been super healthy

Has it, though?

The South Korean paper claimed to have found "The First Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor". It took a month for researchers around the world to essentially debunk this.

Science works by peer review, yes, but that should have never been a claim to begin with. They were blinded by excitement of the results and eager to publish the paper, instead of being conservative and making sure they got everything right.

Now it's clear that they missed several key aspects that seem trivial in retrospect. It's just sloppy science.

Sure, this caused much excitement in science nerds everywhere, and the media got more ad impressions, but overall I wouldn't qualify this particular event as "super healthy".

Coincidentally, or not, this[1] is currently on the front page.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37137405

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Re:LK-99 isn’t a superconductor – how science sleuths solved... by jschveibinz on Wednesday August 16, 2023 @09:51PM (#37156186)
I believe it is the pressure to publish. The number of papers published has grown exponentially and it is reported that the quality of research has decreased.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333487946_Over-opti...

https://www.nature.com/articles/533147a

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Re:LK-99 isn’t a superconductor – how science sleuths solved... by mike_d on Thursday August 17, 2023 @02:21PM (#37165898)
> The South Korean paper claimed

As I understand it the paper was a leaked preprint. Which means they didn't "claim" anything, but were distributing it to get peer review and feedback before publishing.

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Re:LK-99 isn’t a superconductor – how science sleuths solved... by imiric on Friday August 18, 2023 @05:51AM (#37173405)
Whether it was a leaked preprint or not, they clearly claimed to have synthesized a SC[1].

[1]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.12008

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