A few hours ago people found a Facebook post dated June, by some professor in Korea, where he posted a photo of a cold-call mass mail by the Quantum Energy Lab (the lab in question), claiming that they had discovered room-temperature superconductor and asking for a private meeting for demonstration. His verdict was that it was a total scam, because why would anyone with room-temperature superconductor be shopping for private meetings instead of submitting a paper to Nature and getting instant fame.
It doesn't prove that it's a scam, but it's not looking good, either.
Here's a translation of the posts for those who don't speak Korean, apologies for any inaccuracies a native speaker could do a better job:
Question:
Do you have any thoughts on this video?
Nature, which I heard was reluctant to publish a paper about it, asked for the results to be published in another academic journal first.
Response:
I've never seen anything like this video. This is what happens when you put a copper-neodymium magnet next to it. Superconductors do not show this characteristic.
Copper does not stick to magnets. However, copper reacts when a magnet moves. This is because when the magnetic field applied to copper changes, eddy currents flow in copper to prevent the magnetic field from changing. This image shows a typical example of copper and a rapidly moving neodymium magnet.
As the representative of the academic community, I try not to express my opinion on room-temperature superconductivity until the verification by a professional institution is completed. But I was convinced after seeing this. If it is a superconductor with the Meissner effect, even if the neodymium magnet is pushed very slowly, the superconductor should be pushed out. If a permanent magnet is moved quickly in this way, a phenomenon occurs in which the copper disk is pushed or pulled by the eddy currents induced in the copper disk.
If there is a superconductor of this size, it can be verified by sending it to a professional institution and just measuring the electrical resistance.
How could these kids grown it to be so big? This is not something that can be picked up. There was also a century-old lie of this level in the last century. Room-temperature nuclear fusion.
There is a 0.0001% chance that I will be embarrassed, but if that is the case, I will apologize with a happy heart. What's going on?
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Then there's some discussion about who the people who created the video are and the letters DOD appear but I have no idea if that means "Department of Defense" or some other acronym.
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Someone posts sarcastically:
Hahaha,
The era of room-temperature superconductivity has finally arrived! And it's not even in a high-pressure environment! Maybe my luck will change now?
But why at 127°C? Everyone else expresses critical temperature in absolute temperature, right? Why 127? Oh, I see, that's 400 K. It's not common for a material to have a critical temperature that's so precise and at a nice round number.
I received a document in the mail that was meant to be sent to a professor at Seoul National University. I guess they made a bunch of copies and mixed up the envelopes and documents.
I wonder if this professor, who is an honorary professor at Hanyang University, has ever even attended an international conference. If he presented these results at an international conference, it would be a huge success.
Superconductivity and energy...they use all the buzzwords.
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They post a picture of the letter which says:
Dear Professor,
I am writing to inform you that the research you have been conducting has been successful. We have achieved room-temperature superconductivity, which is a major breakthrough in the field of energy.
I would like to thank you for your hard work and dedication to this project. Your contributions have been invaluable, and we could not have achieved this success without you.
I am confident that this breakthrough will have a significant impact on the world. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we generate and use energy, and it could lead to new applications in many other fields.
I would like to invite you to present your findings at an upcoming international conference. This would be an excellent opportunity to share your work with the world and to discuss the potential applications of room-temperature superconductivity.
Thank you again for your contributions to this project. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
> Then there's some discussion about who the people who created the video are and the letters DOD appear but I have no idea if that means "Department of Defense" or some other acronym.
I don't think there's any mention of "DOD", it's just a screenshot of a low-quality discussion in yet another discussion board where people were asking "So who the fuck is this guy?" (i.e., the guy who's saying it's probably a scam).
* I probably should have mentioned that this site is roughly a Korean equivalent of 4chan and the discussions are generally low quality and filled with swears. But the screenshot of the Facebook post seems genuine.
It doesn't prove that it's a scam, but it's not looking good, either.
Link (in Korean): https://gall.dcinside.com/board/view/?id=superconductor&no=6...