room temperature superconductor from supercompressed silicon and hydrogen [premature] This would be huge [premature announcement]. They have a new class of superconductors which have a shot at reaching higher temps because of the [unproven] theory of metallic hydrogen being a room temp superconductor. Other news still awaiting confirmation is unpressurized superconductors at 185K.
brianwang2 votesTuesday, March 18, 2008 at 3:20 PM
It is published in the journal science. I added more info. They had to keep the material under pressure (100GPa) in order to get to 300K superconducting. So there is still work to do to make this more practical. Figure out a way to quench the metal such that it stays and metal and superconducting when pressure is removed. There is also the early word on the non-pressurized advances to -87C. This is at the cusp of a decent lab freezer, that easily go down to -86C. A lot of improvement and activity in this area seems to be happening now.
