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romanr writes:
"Copper oxides, also known as cuprates, are the most promising materials for superconductivity. Today, cuprates can be superconductive at temperatures as high as -150 °C. But for many years scientists wondered why they lose superconductivity when concentration of electrons drops below certain level. Most scientist thought that the cuprates gradually became insulators.
Scientists from Université de Sherbrooke discovered that the loss of superconductivity is because of a sudden appearance of a distinct electronic phase in the material that enters into competition with the superconductivity and weakens it. It means, that higher temperature superconductors will be possible if we can get rid of the competing phase. This new approach opens a way to get an ambient temperature superconductivity."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EventH0rizon on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:14AM
Actually, the promise is indefinitely.
From the linked article: "Once the superconducting coil is charged, the current will not decay and the magnetic energy can be stored indefinitely".
It's my understanding that there is no friction to speak of in a superconducting magnetic coil. They were enthusing about the possibilities in Scientific American a few years back.
As usual though, this technology is probably "Just 5 or 10 years away" ;-)
(Score: 1) by mhajicek on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:07AM
I think the intense magnetic field would tend to act on nearby objects, blessing off energy. Am I wrong?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:24AM
According to a Wikipedia article linked in another post this technology exists right now. It's just very expensive and only used in very specific use cases that can justify the cost.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.