I wrote on Thursday about scientists potentially finding the holy-grail of materials science: A room-temperature superconductor.
The odds are rising that it's been found. You can see that above on the betting site Polymarket and the big jump in the past few hours was after the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California published a paper on simulations supporting the miracle material called LK-99.
One of the key puzzles that the original Korean discoverers have been working on isn't what the material is, but why it works. This would help to solve that question and expand the applications.
In terms of applications, physicists say it would make it far easier to make fusion energy, vastly improve battery techology, make motors more efficient and make-possible things like mag-lev trains and quantum computers.
It's still very early days, but the investment boom from the discovery of such a material -- especially since it's made from easy-to-find materials like lead, copper and phosphate -- would be enormous, perhaps unprecedented.
As for market implications, there isn't a single clear winner but we would all benefit from a far-more-efficient world. I'd expect all parts of the grid and all the companies who build power grids to benefit. Car makers would be an interesting one as it would potentially be a great leap forward to cheap batteries with high ranges. I also think steel companies could benefit from the build out as well.
Between this and AI, the future looks bright.
