mark_feelthree
It's to protect the inventors while they license the technology.
If this works they'll be licensing the rights to use it to some massive companys... besides multiple Korean companies are already invested in it...
LK-99 would likely only be a first step... a brittle crystal doesn't make a great power line...
The Manhattan project and moon landings happened because the US spent a significant % of it's GDP on the project. We might have Fusion already if they repeated it...
LK-99 is just chemistry... not nearly as complicated.
Put it in your battery anode and you can charge your car in a few seconds.
Computers won't need cooling and can be way smaller. Quantum computing becomes more practical. AGI is more likely.
Huge implications for Fusion, which then means we can start pulling CO2 from the air since we'll have more power than we need...
'good news' doesn't begin to cover it :)
Science is broken.
If they really saw this as being possible in 1999 why has it taken so long to progress? Well, I guess it's because they had day jobs... but think of what could have changed if it worked 24 years ago... think of the carbon we've spewed out in a quarter century :(
We really need a multi-billion dollar x-prize for tech like this... and make it open-source so it's not paywalled behind a patent.
Someone get Bill Gates to write a cheque...