Scientists Create Room Temperature Superconductor

StarEmperor writes "A team of Canadian and German scientists have fabricated a room-temperature superconductor, using a highly compressed silicon-hydrogen compound. According to the article,"The researchers claim that the new material could sidestep the cooling requirement, thereby enabling superconducting wires that work at room temperature.""

But...

[king0lag]

Can it keep beer cool at room temperature?

Room temperature superconductors?

[Kaz Kylheku]

Like Leonard Bernstein, for instance?

In related news

[427_ci_505]

Researchers in Fairbanks, Alaska have just created a room temperature superconductor.

obviously beer drinkers

[oddtodd]

the scientists, that is...

Re:Please hold your breath and run...

[nonsequitor]

Silane is pyrophoric and boils at 161 K.

So you're saying it's vaporware?

Vernacular change?

[Itninja]

So, lets say this eventually becomes a common technology (doubtful, but lets pretend). When do we get to stop calling them 'super'conductors? When the super becomes the common, is it still super? Like the evolution of memory classification in DOS. Before the advent of the NY kernal, I spent considerable time trying to remember the difference between conventional, extended, expanded, upper, and high memory. I think the main reason DOS gave way to Windows was Microsoft ran out of superlatives....

Re:Its a bomb

[pushing-robot]

Silane explodes with considerable violence on exposure to air

Cool, I get to mark two things off my Star Trek checklist in a single day:

* Room-temperature superconductors
* Computers that explode violently

Re:Vernacular change?

[Chris Burke]

So, lets say this eventually becomes a common technology (doubtful, but lets pretend). When do we get to stop calling them 'super'conductors?

Never, because the physics of super conductors is different from regular conductors, and regular conductors are never going away. There are many, many circumstances where having resistance is necessary, and for that you need a plain-ol' conductor. Also I think we're safe from creeping-superlative-itis because you pretty much can't get more "super" than "effectively zero resistance".

And what's so hard about remembering all the types of DOS memory? "Conventional" was the kind that you never had enough of to launch your games. "Extended" memory was a baroque and stupid way of accessing all the extra memory you had that the chip couldn't address directly. "Expanded" memory was the same thing, only different. "Upper" memory was the memory your chip could address but refused to let your games use. And lastly "high" memory is when you were editing your config.sys autoexec.bat to get more conventional memory but you got distracted thinking about how funny it would be if .bat files were like, actually bats that flew around in your computer, and you forgot what the line was you just deleted, and your game never runs again.

Simple answer.....

[edwardpickman]

give it my job. There's more than enough pressure.

Re:Room temperature superconductors?

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as can be known to us, Mr. Bernstein a super conductor only when
ABOVE
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body_temperature [wikipedia.org]
  room temperature
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_temperature [wikipedia.org],
which state, sadly, ended Oct. 14, 1990
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein [wikipedia.org]

"STP superconductor"

[cizoozic]

You mean like Scott Weiland [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Buckytubes as containers?

[ndelta]

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!!

Re:So what

[Lewrker]

I'm just predicting a dupe on Slashdot in 20 years.

Re:So what

[cayenne8]

"This is absolutely awesome if they can get it into production, even in 20 years."

No doubt. Think of the awesome stereo cables you could make with these!!!

Superconducting speaker cables and interconnects....the audiophiles dream!!

No wooden knob needed.

:-)

Re:Room temperature superconductors?

[drwho]

Bernstein put the orchestra under immense pressure.

Re:Room-pressure?

[jpellino]

"You can design a pressure vessel such that the pressure only escapes via small known locations (any valve or seal), whereas cold always escapes in all directions. "

Feh. You were obviously not brought up in my house. Cold goes only through the open door. Ask my father.

(And yes, we both know that cold doesn't go anywhere, heat does...)

Re:So what

[sponglish]

Superconducting speaker cables! Woohooo!

Of course, by then you won't want to buy just any SPCs, it will have been proven that Monster premium SPCs superconduct much better than cheapo cables...

Re:Applications?

[Lord Ender]

When the Earth's gravitationally pole flips once again, humans will have to carry super-conducting electromagnet umbrellas with them to avoid the mass-extinction causing radiation.

Re:Room-pressure?

[Wonko the Sane]

Cold is not a thing, it is the absence of something (heat). Heat, on the other hand, exists, and enters from all directions.

Heat is not a thing. Thermal Energy, on the other hand, exists, and dissipates in all directions. (Heat is defined as the dissipation of thermal energy)

Thermal energy is not a thing. Molecules do, however, have kinetic energy which they tend to partially transfer to other molecules with less kinetic energy when they randomly collide.

Re:Room-pressure?

[rubycodez]

kinetic energy is not a thing but a property dependent on inertial reference frame of observer

Re:Room-pressure?

[Wonko the Sane]

It's turtles all the way down

Re:But...

[SQLGuru]

Combine the room-temp superconductor plus the motionless CPU cooler, throw in the fact that scientists success corrolates to beer (three stories from today), and you just might have colder beer.

Layne

Re:So what

[GumphMaster]

Surely we'll have to wait for directional, oxygen-free, hand-plaited, super-conducting cables that only come pre-cut in matched sets with superconducting power cables. Of course, such cables would be incomplete without solid gold plugs fitted by deaf vestal virgins and a name that gratuitously includes the words "Reference" or "Ultimate". My stereo is quivering in anticipation ;)

Re:Its a bomb

[rcw-home]

1. Make a wire of the material.
2. Clad material with a metal coating at high temperature.

Said material melts at 88 kelvins. It'd be like galvanizing an ice cream cone.

Room Temperature!

[koolguy442]

Well, maybe this works at room temperature at The University of Saskatchewan, but down here in tropical Michigan, we still have significant work to do!

Re:So what

[Hal_Porter]

Terminator brains are superconducting at room temperature as I recall, IANASES ( I am not a SkyNet engineering subroutine ).

Re:Its a bomb

[cain]

Plus, how are you going to put conductors under great pressure ?

Ummm - tell them their Moms are in the audience?

Re:Room-pressure?

[rubycodez]

yup, and I tell ya what, the legs o' them broad-backed world supportin'turtles is good eatin!

Re:So what

[Darth]

No wooden knob needed.

No, you'd still need the audiophile.

(i kid because i care... ok, you caught me. I don't really care)

Re:Room-pressure?

[bquickfoo]

An intertial reference frame is not a thing. An inertial reference frame is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into a Duracell battery. (Remember... all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.)

Re:Room-pressure?

[Alsee]

The huge disparity between on-chip clocks and bus/memory clocks will increase the pressure on Intel and AMD to push as much circuitry on-chip as possible.

Yes, but will it increase the pressure enough to achieve superconductivity?

-

Re:Room-pressure?

[dintech]

Hold on There, there's No Need to Capitalize on the Situation.

Re:So what

[daem0n1x]

No way! The cold sound of a superconductor cable cannot be compared to that warm, round sound of a vintage copper cable.

Re:Applications?

[deimtee]

Run a few loops of it around the equator, put a big enough current through it and you could put Magnetic North on top of True North, where it bloody well should be.

Re:So what

[Loconut1389]

Brain, is that you? Narf!

Re:Room-pressure?

[bdjacobson]

But if it does go wrong, things could be bad. Superconductors are laready prone to explosive failure if a superconductor suddenly ceasews to superconduct. If that is inside a very high pressure vessel, the available energy from a destructive malfunction is frightening : Mega-amps of electicity and giga-pascals of pressure suddenly being unleashed in the wrong place.

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "you let the magic smoke out".

With this new technology, I imagine a lot fewer people will be alive to say this. Overclockers beware-- these chips will let YOUR smoke out too!