2023-08-03 09:35:06
With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicolas Rocca
This discovery would improve the performance of electric motors, levitating trains and revolutionize medical technologies. These are the promises of superconductors.
This concept designates a material capable of eliminating electrical resistance and repelling the magnetic field, in other words, of conducting an electrical current continuously and almost without loss of energy. A situation that we manage to create in extreme conditions, such as temperatures below -138°C.
This environment is expensive to reproduce and does not allow significant energy gain. But the Korean researchers claim to have achieved this at ambient temperature and pressure, which would allow its use. Many physicists are in the process of verifying whether the modified material behind the discovery, LK-99, has the desired properties.
Work that must first be validated by the scientific community
However, the South Korean researchers’ paper has not yet been peer-reviewed. This week Chinese and American teams say that their studies partially confirm the results, but it could take months or even years to obtain certainty, and even longer for large-scale production.
While waiting for the study to be verified by independent physicists, the financial markets have already reacted to the potential discovery. Some South Korean companies in the sector have seen their prices soar in recent days.
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