Viral room-temperature superconductor claims spark excitement & skepticism

Last week, a group of South Korean physicists made a startling claim. In two papers uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, they say they have created a material that “opens a new era for humankind”.

LK-99, a lead-based compound, is purportedly a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor. Such a material, which conducts electricity without any resistance under normal conditions, could have huge implications for energy generation and transmission, transport, computing and other areas of technology.