Science!! Another Paper Claiming Room-Temperature Superconductor Goes Down In Flames

[hatrack]

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A physicist whose burgeoning career has been rocked by accusations of plagiarism and professional misconduct has now had his biggest discovery invalidated by the journal that published the research. In March, Ranga Dias and his team made the electrifying claim that they had identified a room-temperature superconductor—a discovery that, if true, would have been a step toward revolutionizing energy grids, battery technology, computer processors and a host of other electrical systems by making them work more efficiently.

Instead, after months of public criticism from other physicists, a written requestfrom eight of the study’s 11 authors and an internal investigation of its own, the journal Nature on Tuesday retracted the paper. “These concerns are credible, substantial and remain unresolved,” a notice now posted alongside the paper states. Dias and two other authors didn’t say whether they agree with the retraction.

Dias, who led the research at the University of Rochester, told The Wall Street Journal in September that he “never engaged in the fabrication, manipulation, or misrepresentation of data in any of my research endeavors.” In the now-retracted paper, Dias and his team said they observed superconducting behavior in the rare-earth metal lutetium when mixed with hydrogen and nitrogen. Superconductivity—the unusual ability of some materials to pass electrical current without a loss of energy—is seen only at impractically low temperatures, and often also requires very high pressures.

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The paper’s lead author, Ranga Dias, already had one paper retracted at the time. A TechCrunch+ investigation later that month revealed that Dias had falsely claimed the company he founded was backed by big-name investors, including Sam Altman, Daniel Ek and Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Then in August, another of Dias’s papers was retracted, and in September, eight of the 11 authors on the March paper asked for Nature to retract the most recent one.

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https://climatecrocks.com/2023/11/07/paper-retracted-false-alarm-on-room-temp-superconductor/#more-92682

[EYESORE 9001]

1. Surprised this guy hadn't been sacked long ago

Such is the power of tenure, I guess