Thread by @michaelgreshko

As I have been able to on parental leave, I have been monitoring the #LK99 story. Some quick reactions (short 🧵):
- Superconductivity needs multiple solid lines of evidence to confirm, and as others have said, you have to beat every good metal.

- Even if LK-99 is confirmed, it’s no given that it will be commercially viable at scale. For example, at what current would a magnet made of it or derivatives quench? Only now, amid investment in nuclear fusion, have high-temp superconductor tapes found a major market.

- Condensed matter physics don’t get anywhere close to this amount of mainstream attention regularly. The physics are fascinating—and they are also super-hard to grok (quasiparticles and whatnot). Regardless of what happens, maybe this moment will sustain more public interest.

- There’s a long history of similar superconductor claims that went nowhere, and crying wolf risks eroding trust. So it’s reasonable to treat the claim—as media, as scientists, as the public—with skepticism but also a willingness to consider quantitative evidence as it comes.

- As @jjaron has noted, we’re at the point with LK-99 where folks need to slow down, cross their T’s, and dot their I’s. Even if it went nowhere commercially, a room-temp ambient superconductor would yield amazing insights. Yet extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.