If they really did find a room temperature superconductor
Power engineering is one of the more interesting fields of electrical engineering.
This really
is big news as it's something that will have major implications for everyone.
A lot of energy that requires contact, generates heat, etc. would basically be eliminated and would actually be more powerful.
Apparently you can make this right in your garage right now with lead, copper and basic lab equipment.
The paper is basically indicating this is replicable with primitive tech.
That's how crazy this breakthrough would be.
Imagine if people from centuries ago had access to energy generation like we do now. That's the implications here.
Unfortunately let's see how capitalism impacts this. A few thousand people right now are running the world into the ground for the
billions of us. We got the most insane tech around us right now, even before this breakthrough but let selfish little insecure people fukk it up for everyone all the time.
This however, may tank many of those industries because we'll have found they're too inefficient (too much wasted energy). Instead of energy being converted to useless/wasteful heat, that now can go into doing something meaningful.
Well, for starters, levitation.
If you have a superconductor and a powerful magnet the superconductor will levitate above the magnet for as long as it's still superconducting, which in practice today means as long as it's cool enough.
Having maglev trains not requiring cryogenic cooling to operate would be nice, and I'm sure levitation will have many applications on its own.
In broader terms, since a superconductor conducts current with no resistance basically any normal conductor you don't want to heat up by operating could possibly be replaced by it, depending on the material properties of the superconductor.
So like, transportation, electronics, the power grid. Trillion dollar industries.
If it turns out to actually work, we will have computer processors that are hundreds or even thousands of times faster than current devices. That's because the pathways inside an integrated circuit have to be made with conductive material(copper?) that has some resistance to electricity. That resistance causes heat. The faster the processor runs the more heat is generated, putting a limit on performance.
If the pathways could be made with a superconducting material that worked at everyday temps and pressures then they'd run much faster without generating so much heat that they damage themselves.
Not to mention gaming, software, apps, etc. you could make would be
It basically improves every single thing electrical up to this point, which improves efficiently exponentially for things mechanical.
Literally, world hunger cure, planet and animals thankful type-of-level breakthrough.
www.nextbigfuture.com
science bytch 
