S.Korean experts seek to verify room-temperature superconductor claim

Inductance Energy

03/08/2023 11:38

SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - South Korean experts said on
Thursday they would set up a committee to verify claims that a
room temperature superconductor has been discovered, which has
driven investor frenzy as well as peer skepticism since. 
    The Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics, a
group of experts, said in a statement on Thursday it had asked
Quantum Energy Research Centre to submit samples in order to
verify its researchers' findings of a room-temperature
superconductor material, made public last month on a website
showing research before formal publication. 
    "There has been a lot of controversy over the authenticity
of the reported results at home and abroad, and other claims are
being added without being peer-reviewed," the group said. 
    "Based on data from the two archived papers and the video
made public, the materials ... cannot be called room temperature
superconductors at this point," it added. 
    Superconductors, substances with no electrical resistance,
are considered valuable as they can allow electrical currents to
pass through without losing energy. 
    But the handful of materials discovered so far only exhibit
superconductivity at extremely high temperatures and pressures,
making them impractical for widespread use. 
    The group said organisations such as Seoul National
University, Sungkyunkwan University, and Pohang University of
Science and Technology would verify the findings if any sample
is provided by Quantum Energy Research Centre, while member
organisations are carrying out their own verification research. 
    The researchers that made the claim did not respond
immediately to a request for comment.
    Shares in the U.S., China and South Korea have gained since
the claim of a practical superconductor was made public, as
investors made early bets despite skepticism among some
scientists. 
    The global frenzy had been further stoked after a Chinese
university published a video replicating the experiment.
    An index tracking Chinese superconductor-related stocks has
surged since late July, when the South Korean researchers
published their papers, rising as much as 22%, though it gave up
a large chunk of those gains on Thursday. 
    Among these stocks were Jiangsu Etern Co  600105.SS  and
Western Superconducting Technologies  688122.SS  which closed
down 9.7% and 8.13% respectively on Thursday.

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 (Reporting by Joyce Lee and Brenda Goh
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((joyce.lee@tr.com;))