Its a bit surprising to see a journal like nature effectively whine about replication efforts falling short in what’s likely a very temperamental, context / environment influenced synthesis process of a new composition. Its not going to work immediately.
Even if it is a real breakthrough, material synthesis of a new material in any lab, and doing so reproducibly, is tricky enough that I am absolutely not going to infer / conclude from, or pass any comment on any replication efforts this early into the process. Its going to be an iterative process - which means one has to start somewhere.
Some of the quoted folks come across (to me) as just peevish.
Derek Lowe [0] has a far more balanced take on it, IMO.
His article was discussed on HN a few days ago [1].
Natures op-ed articles are very low quality pop-sci trash, unfortunately. It’s made all the more galling because their long form in-depth content is still great.
Guess it’s the price they pay to remain solvent in the clickbait age.
Really all anyone—Nature included—can say at this point is there’s something interesting going on. It may or may not be a super-conductor, but it’s certainly interesting.
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After going through the article, I'm absolutely surprised that one can publish such low effort (oped) articles on nature.com; perhaps lazy me should also give it a shot. Didn't care to check the author's credentials: if he is sort of a big name guy so Nature didn't bother with quality control.
It's been like that since forever. A lot of scientists are so terrified to come across as disrespectful of orthodoxy that they'd never publicly entertain unconventional ideas. The risks of shaming, name-calling ("crackpot", "pseudoscientist", "quack", "fraud", "idiot", "fool") and funding loss constantly loom for a lot of people. And let's not pretend this doesn't have everything to do with money and politics. People and institutions deeply invested in, and cushioned by, status quo norms have every incentive to get nervous about disruption.
I have to admit: I get some satisfaction watching naysayer rationalists get it wrong time and time again. Grumpy, mean people who can't see the big picture for ass but make categorical, reductionist big picture claims (e.g. about impossibilities) under the guise of rationalism, they're quite often just wrong, because the map is not the territory. The longer you cling to a crusty old map, the more likely it is that eventually you'll get lost, though you might never admit it to yourself.
Then there are the people who carefully balance their skepticism with open minded curiosity and a sense of imagination, who are interested and engaged in the social exchange of ideas and perspectives. They're often more quiet, less attention seeking, less worried about determining who's "wrong" and who's "right".
That's why I enjoy Quanta magazine. They profile all kinds of people doing real, interesting, groundbreaking work, people who aren't sitting around playing clout games. They tell stories about the collaborative relationships that make science possible.
And then there's the 99.9% of people who completely ignore the "crusty old map" of science and get scammed by grifters selling them a brand-new fantasy map every other week.
You don't have the right to be curious about anything until you have at least glanced at the real map. And you deserve to be shamed as a crackpot, pseudoscientist, quack and fraud if you are.
Even if it is a real breakthrough, material synthesis of a new material in any lab, and doing so reproducibly, is tricky enough that I am absolutely not going to infer / conclude from, or pass any comment on any replication efforts this early into the process. Its going to be an iterative process - which means one has to start somewhere.
Some of the quoted folks come across (to me) as just peevish.
Derek Lowe [0] has a far more balanced take on it, IMO.
His article was discussed on HN a few days ago [1].
[0] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/room-temperature-s...
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36957678