Just when I think the hype about room temperature superconductors is over, it’s not.
A Swiss quantum algorithm company, Terra Quantum, and a research laboratory at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil, claim to have discovered a form of graphite that has superconductivity at ambient temperature and pressure.
Terra Quantum is no small operation. The company raised $60 million in early 2022 for its quantum-as-a-service platform. But that doesn’t mean you should get your hopes up.
Room-temperature superconductors, if found and independently confirmed, could revolutionize everything from electricity transmission to computing, electric vehicles, MRI machines, maglev trains, and more.
Recently, claims of room temperature superconductivity seem to be blooming like flowers after a rainstorm. In the past year alone, three high-profile cases have been debunked, retracted or seriously questioned.
Consider the latter falling into the latter category. The researchers TechCrunch+ spoke with were skeptical that this new material is a room-temperature superconductor.