Superconductor claims are 'baseless' say South Korean experts

[December 13, 2023] By Hyunsu Yim
 
SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean academic group said on Wednesday that claims by some researchers in the country that a practical superconductor had been discovered were "baseless", citing the group's inability to replicate the results.  

Superconductors are materials that allow electrical current to flow with no resistance, a property that would revolutionize power grids as well as advance fields such as computing chips, where electrical resistance acts as a speed limit.

A view shows one of the superconductor coils which are assembled to form the giant magnet within which the magnectic field is 11.7 T., the core component of the most powerful MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner in the world to be used for human brain imaging at the Neurospin facility of the CEA Saclay Nuclear Research Centre near Paris, France, September 17, 2019. Picture taken September 17, 2019. REUTERS/Thierry Chiarello/File Photo

In July, two papers by South Korean scientists appeared on a website used by scientists to share research before formal peer review and publication claiming to have found a superconductor dubbed LK-99. They said it worked at room temperature, which has long been considered a holy grail for scientists.

The papers sparked a social media frenzy and stock moves over their superconductor claims.

However, a white paper from the Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics, published with the help of eight local laboratories, said it found no cases showing zero resistance or instances of the so-called Meissner effect, when superconducting material repels a magnetic field.

"For the claim that LK-99 is a room-temperature, normal-pressure superconductor to be not just a claim but to be proven scientifically universal, there must be cross-measurement and replication by a third party," the society said.

Attempts by the group to replicate the results failed and Quantum Energy Research Centre, whose researchers were among the authors of the papers, was asked to submit samples in order to verify the findings but did not provide them, the group said, leaving the verification process incomplete.

The authors of superconductor claims did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Ed Davies and Christian Schmollinger)

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