- [Narrator] Widespread floating trains. Nuclear fusion. Marty McFly's hoverboard. - He's on a hoverboard. - [Narrator] It sounds like the future but many scientists say these types of advances aren't as
far away as we think. They all hinge on one
thing, a room-temperature, ambient pressure
superconductor, and in July, some scientists claimed
to have found just that, sending stock prices for companies with a perceived connection
to superconductors soaring. - A breakthrough like this really could mean longer lasting
batteries for our devices, revolutionizing medical imaging. It could mean more
efficient electrical grids. It could mean improved high speed trains. There's almost no aspect of our daily life that a room-temperature, ambient pressure
superconductor wouldn't touch if commercially applied. - [Narrator] That's why investors, despite doubts surrounding the search, are still backing the effort. Here's where the science stands and what it could take to bring such a superconductor to market. When electricity flows
from one place to another, it travels along some type of
conductor, usually a metal. Those conductors put up some
resistance, which results in some of the energy being lost as heat. That's why your phone or
computer can get really warm. Superconductors eliminate that resistance and can transmit energy without loss. - Superconductors, obviously, if they conduct electric
current perfectly, it means they're extremely efficient. - [Narrator] But these
materials typically only work in extreme conditions, temperatures as cold as roughly negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit or extremely high pressure. - There's always an investment to do the necessary cryogenics. If you're using copper and
it has a little bit of loss but the superconductor
is much more expensive for most of your applications, you might wanna use copper instead. Just because you have a superconductor, the question is whether
it's gonna be useful or not. - [Narrator] Because of that, superconductors, as they
exist today, are used in limited circumstances,
for example, MRI machines but there's also been
investment in broader uses. The Departments of Energy
and Homeland Security have funded initiatives to
create more resilient power grids using superconducting cables, like one in Chicago that uses liquid
nitrogen to keep cables cool. - Ultimately, the reason
why people are so interested in this space in terms
of investment especially is because unlocking a room-temperature and pressure superconductor again, would revolutionize medical imaging. It would make it so that
magnetically levitating trains were more accessible, cheaper
to build, more efficient. It would make it so that
our electrical grids truly would become revolutionized. - [Narrator] Because
superconductors potentially promise huge advances in technology, finding one that can
work at room-temperature and ambient pressure
has become a holy grail for scientists and investors. A group led by scientists at
the University of Rochester claimed to make a major
breakthrough in March. A superconductor made of
rare-earth material combined with nitrogen and hydrogen
that they said worked at roughly room temperature. The study was peer reviewed but the lead researcher
has come under scrutiny. The University of Rochester-led group did not respond to requests for comment. Then two other papers released in July detailed a potential superconductor called LK-99 that combined copper, lead, phosphorus and oxygen and worked at room temperature
and ambient pressure. Videos of the substance
floating above a magnet, a hallmark of superconductivity,
circulated online. But those papers, written by
researchers who mostly worked for the privately held Quantum
Energy Research Center, haven't yet been peer reviewed and many scientists say
LK-99 is just a magnet rather than a superconducting material. - Many groups had difficulty
replicating the experiment. - [Narrator] The Quantum
Energy Research Center didn't respond to requests for comment. Still, the enthusiasm
for the July research triggered big stock swings
for companies like SuNAM, Mobiis and American Superconductor. Before a room-temperature,
ambient pressure superconductor can be brought to market, it needs to be replicated
regularly in trials. That's what Norman's group at Argonne National Laboratory is trying to do now with LK-99. - It's gonna sort of
take a while to sort out what's actually going on there. It opens up the space, right? There's lots and lots
of minerals out there, very few that have been studied
from a physics perspective. Maybe there are other surprises
out there waiting for us. - [Narrator] Replicating results
can take weeks or months, if even possible. Then its production needs to be scaled up, which can take much longer. - It's one thing having
little microscopic samples in your laboratory, it's another thing to make kilometer-long wires. We just don't know. Until you know what the material is and how easy it is to make, and then it's like how can you wrap it and make a wire out of it? Until you know those things,
it's really hard to figure out what kind of lag will be from
discovery to applications. - [Narrator] The superconductor
cable system used for the power grid in Chicago took years and approximately $19
million to implement. - Any discovery or invention or change in the field is ultimately net positive. So it's almost like a nothing to lose, everything to gain scenario. It's not like they have spent
decades researching this, trying new recipes, and
it has yielded no results. So it's perhaps just a matter of time. (pensive music)
