LK-99: The Live Online Race for a Room-Temperature Superconductor (Summary)

Disclaimer: I’m not a materials scientist. I may update this over time as I collate more information.
jump down: original primer (top) – specifics explained – update log – live table – for trending viewers
last change: 2023-08-18 FINAL 3 – new spreadsheet section
2023-08-12: two week followup post

On 22 July 2023, two mysterious preprint papers were suddenly uploaded to arxiv.org – this is a website of draft scientific papers that is the first step to peer-reviewed publication, but it’s not a total confirmation. They were posted about two hours apart – the first one, with three authors credited, claims to have created the world’s first room-temperature-and-pressure (RTP) superconductor.

This first preprint is short and appears to be hastily written, and has three authors attached: Sukbae Lee, Ji-Hoon Kim, Young-Wan Kwon.

The second preprint is much more detailed, though there are some signs it that was still pushed out a bit quickly. However, even more curiously, it has six authors: Sukbae Lee, Jihoon Kim, Hyun-Tak Kim, Sungyeon Im, SooMin An, and Keun Ho Auh. The third author of the first uploaded item is missing from the second.

The purported properties of the material labeled “LK-99” are incredible. Originally synthesised in 1999, not only is it RTP, but the critical temperature is actually 127°C – above the boiling temperature of water. The synthesis method is also shockingly simple: Finely grind and mix Lanarkite (Pb₂(SO₄)O) and Copper Phosphide (Cu₃P) and bake it at 925°C in a vacuum chamber for a day. The ability to discover and synthesise it has theoretically been available since the industrial revolution. Now, one should be able to do it in a garage or home lab.

The reaction online is a rapid mix of skepticism and curiosity. Fraudulent claims have occurred before – the previous one claimed it required 10,000 atm, as a deliberate delay to independent verification. That doesn’t exist here. The authorship is also curious: The main authors are experts in superconductivity and magnetic research. It is widely noted that only a maximum of three people can recieve a Nobel Prize. Was the first paper a deliberate attempt to flag themselves as the finders?

Young-Wan Kwon – the removed author from the first one – crashes a science conference several days later and talks about the discovery. He couldn’t demonstrate a sample, and was apparently expelled from the science group months ago. Is this a sign of treachery? In-fighting for credit? It makes the whole thing pass the sniff test. Many of us may not believe it yet, but they certainly do. What else could make an expert behave like that?

As I begin writing this post on 30 July, the live reaction – and attempts to replicate it – has been developing day-by-day on the scientific community on Twitter. A space engineering startup in the Los Angeles area coincidentally has all the tools on-hand and available, and quickly orders the materials and blogs about the day-by-day progress of synthesis. A Korean user fluent in English begins translating news from Korean newspapers and internet forums. A Chinese user does the same for Chinese social media. Scientists who maintain an online presence begin explaining the implications and dissect the paper. Someone begins compiling key figures acting as information sources across language barriers.

The magic of room-temperature superconductors is something that shows up in sci-fi, and is easily understood at the high-school physics level. But having most of these ongoing news break on Twitter… well, I’m not a heavy user of Twitter, but I never quite figured out a good way to track an event after it has occured. It’s very good for a live feed, but it gets rather scattered if you’re trying to catch up.

This post is just my way of making sense of the key opening events.

Is it nothing? Is it less than expected? At the very least, there’s a lot of buzz right now. At the very least, I might stick additional events in chronological order below the next couple of separator lines.

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What’s the Big Deal?

If you need a quick high-school physics primer, here’s the deal:

A superconductor is an electrical conductor with zero resistance. It was first discovered when it was found that resistance drops with temperature, and for some reason, instead of dropping in a curve, some materials immediately drop to zero resistance when they pass a certain point, called the ‘critical temperature’. Zero resistance means that no heat is generated when electricity passes through; in other words, the wire is 100% efficient and energy is not lost over distance, and there’s no heat generation at super-high voltages. The caveat is that the temperature for most of these needs to be way below -200°C. You still need to spend a lot of energy keeping it cool, but the heat doesn’t come from the electricity.

The general result is that any device using superconducting material – such as MRI machines – are bulky and immobile, due to the constant need for cryogenics. A room-temperature superconductor allows for things like an infinitely long power cable without loss, or a portable MRI scanner.

A Rough History of Original Synthesis to Now

Based on the investigation by this user, Sukbae Lee and Jihoon Kim originally found the material in 1999 – thus the label “LK-99”. They were in graduate school at the time, and their mentor was also an expert in this area, theorising that there were signs of superconductivity in this, but required more research. They seem to shelve the whole thing due to the nature of graduate school.

Fast-forwarding to 2017, Lee & Kim have scientific careers, and are called back by their mentor, who encourages them on his deathbed to complete the research. However, without any backing – particularly on the English-speaking international level – they work with Young-Wan Kwon and somehow acquire funding.

By 2022 and early 2023, patents are filed. Something happens with Kwon, and he appears to publish the first paper without warning.

Theorising How it Works

In one of the citations for the detailed paper, one of the citations is one of their own papers published several months prior about the theoretical causes of superconductivity in LK-99. The paper is written in Korean, though there is an abstract in English: The general idea is that a one-dimensional electron structure could explain the high temperature superconductivity of the material, which has a critical temperature of at least over 97°C.

(I’m not a materials scientist so don’t expect a good explanation.)

“It’s only diamagnetism!” / What qualifies as a Superconductor?

One reaction to the claim from both experts and amateurs is that it only has inconsistent signs of diamagnetism. What is that, and how is it related to a magnet? There are a few types of magnetism, but the simplified explanation is that diamagnetism is like an “anti” magnet, in that it pushes away from a magnetic field. In the right arrangement, it will fight against gravity by a set amount.

Diamagnetism occurs in many objects but is typically very weak, except for some materials like bismuth. However, the ‘superdiamagnetism’ effect is many orders of magnitude stronger than bismuth, floating an even greater distance. Essentially, in addition to zero resistance, a superconductor will also suddenly repel magnets strongly – so it’s a way to identify one. This is called the Meissner effect. There is also another phenomenon called “flux pinning”. Instead of being repelled, the superconductor near a magnet will lock in place in a fixed position in the magnetic field. Instead of being pushed away, it will float in place.

Going back to the reactions of LK-99, something that is uncertain is the strength of the diamagnetism. “If it repels, is it repelled by a lot?” is essentially the question. But the difference should be several orders of magnitude. What if it is only one order of magnitude stronger? Is it a strong diamagnet, or weak Meissner effect?

Such is one area of skepticism.

Does Replication mean it’s Confirmed?

Since this is a preprint paper that has not been peer-reviewed, replication simply means that the information in the paper is confirmed – it does not mean that it is a room-temperature superconductor. In addition to the paper, two video demonstrations were shown. One as a thin film, and a broken shard about the size of a button on a magnet. (If you can’t see video, a picture of the shard is below.)

Observe the LK-99 material – it is actually not completely floating over the magnet, and only one side is being repelled. It is not totally clear if the other side is magnetic, or dropping down from gravity since it is not superconductive. This is a point of contention among the various reactions online.

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Update Log
Updated 2023-07-31 – Spacebattles table (11 online replication efforts), Added a personal note about the rapid online response.
Update 2023-08-01 – Primer of diamagnetism, table update with 3 arxiv papers & bilibili granule
Update 2023-08-02 (AM) – More table updates
Update 2023-08-02 (PM) – New section explaining the original sample’s properties and what counts as replication, More table updates, timeline deleted in favour of adding datestamps in the table
Update 2023-08-02 (PM-b) – adjusted table (moved an entry to private) and also added a warning about unverified “official” research.
Update 2023-08-03(AM) Moved Prof. Sun Yue to Academia table and added an update.
Update 2023-08-03(PM) Table updates incl. identity verification, rewrote lede and added key to table
2023-08-04 – table updates
2023-08-05 (AM) – light quality pass on table, improved “unofficial” warning
2023-08-06 (AM) – continued pass, added Qufu and list of qualifiers, updated the intro to use more ‘preprint’ language
2023-08-07 – added Nelke and updated one of the Zhihu projects
2023-08-09 – better review, today WIP (will add another log when done, lots of incremental stuff)
2023-08-09 (mostly done) – added ArXiv blurbs for India, CAS, Manchester, Southeast Uni, moved KSSC, added Kentech & Will&Mary (possessors of LK-99), status column cleanup, bolded key lines for readability, added full contents jump links at top and back to top links, many phrasing fixes
2023-08-10 – added Bilibili science channel, update shirokawa, final mccalip, hust
2023-08-12 – added princeton, corrected beihang, add some elaboration to zoubair, cas
2023-08-13 – final complete pass, all ArXiv preprints reread for missing data and clarifications added, add colorado, peking, removed all department names (hard to read), charles moved down (incomplete synth report), checked all social media
※ 2023-08-17 – added max planck, jawaharlal, lebedev preprints/news, final update to shimizu, iris 0 R
2023-08-18 – added SEU Nanjing’s second ArXiv from 08-10
2023-08-26 – minor corrections to status column

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Online Claims / Liveblogged replication efforts

This began as a fork of Guderian2nd’s table on the discussion thread on Spacebattles with a bit of cleanup and more cross-linking. However, the notes and commentary is completely different: The Spacebattles version has scientific notes, while this is an easier-to-digest event timeline with minimal technical language.

We are both updating it daily but have different timezones/availability hours, so one will usually be 6-12 hours newer than the other. Both are equally valid and we are working off the same information.

If you were linked here directly, I also recommend reading the actual article above. That came first.

UPDATE 2023-08-14: As of this date, I no longer see a need to inspect the table daily. I do not intend to add new attempts, but may still make tweaks. I recommend seeing my newer article.

Warning: Some of these efforts are of students, employees, etc. using their independent lab or free workshop time.
It is not an indicator of the school or company officially working with them and supporting the experiment.

Status column explained:
Synth: Starting the first steps
Ongoing: Retrying or somewhere between
Complete: No sign of further work
Report: Formal report – ArXiv, video or news article

Results column explained:
Fail: No matches found
Success?: At least one property seemingly replicated
Anomalous: They found something exotic

※ is for reliability of info & source

Qualifiers being Looked For
• Diamagnetism or Flux Pinning (see above)
• Levitation (colloquial describer)
• X-Ray Diffraction match (chemical scan)
• Zero Resistance / sudden drop

All three properties must be found.

Academia

Group	Country	Status	Results	Notes / Summary	Sources
Quantum Energy Research Centre, South Korea ICT Basic Research Lab. ETRI, South Korea College of William & Mary, USA Hanyang University, South Korea	N/A	N/A	N/A	This entry is for the originating paper that started everything. Sukbae Lee and Jihoon Kim are from the Quantum Energy Research Centre. They are the main source of LK-99. 2023-07-25: First paper. The datestamps are off by a couple days (it says 2023-07-22 for submission) since there is a publishing delay on the website. 2023-08-01: Version 2 of the paper is uploaded with corrected graphs and figures.	ArXiv Video 1 Video 2
Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST)	China	Report	Success?	※ ArXiv preprint – Progress was first shared as watermarked video on social media, and unsubstantiated chat messages 2023-07-29: Only source is screenshots of WeChat. Translation by Elsa Zhou says that it seems legitimate: Twitter Thread or Medium Some magnetic qualities have been replicated, but no Meissner effect. Low purity is suspected. — 2023-07-30: Livestreamed/posted video on 4 sample experiments. All 4 samples failed to display any magnetic reaction. 2023-08-01: Video demonstration of their sample levitating more than expected. HUST connection on social posts was initially unclear up until now. 2023-08-03: ArXiv preprint on successful room-temperature and pressure levitation at an angle larger than Sukbae Lee’s sample. Images in the paper appear the same as the video. 2023-08-10: 2nd ArXiv preprint: Resistance jump with unknown cause occurred at 387 K (113.85°C). Copper sulfide or copper oxide impurity speculated to be cause. Sample is a semiconductor, but notes that a high quality sample is really needed.	Bilibili_1 Bilibili_2 Bilibili_3 Twitter Zhihu — Bilibili video (AI subtitled) ArXiv ArXiv2
National Physical Laboratory of India	India	Report	Fail	※ ArXiv preprint – preceded by Facebook updates 2023-07-29: Dr. V.P.S. Awana from CSIR-NPLI posted their results on their personal Facebook. 1st attempt used an altered recipe with theoretically the same result, but failed. 2023-07-31: FB: 2nd attempt of a bulk sample is also inconclusive. 2023-08-01: ArXiv: No superconductivity observed. Different kinds of heat treatments are being tried. Paramagnetism is found at 280 K. 2023-08-04: FB: 3rd attempt fail 2023-08-06: FB: General conclusion is that it is not a superconductor. ArXiv supplement is being written. 2023-08-08: ArXiv 2: No superconductivity at room temperature. Diamagnetism at 280K (6.85°C). Notes that other computational results make it possible, but no practical result.	Facebook_1 Facebook_2 ArXiv Facebook_3 Facebook_4 ArXiv2
Beihang University	China	Report	Fail	※ ArXiv preprint 2023-08-01: Compound acts more like a semiconductor and has no levitating qualities. They note that Lanarkite is a diamagnet and Copper Phosphide is a paramagnet. The final compound acts paramagnetic in a strong field.	ArXiv
Chinese Academy of Sciences	China	Report	Anomalous	※ ArXiv preprint 2023-08-09: A sharp resistance drop with diamagnetism was found at 370K (96.85°C) but it was not zero. Semiconductivity starts at 100K and going down. They also note that the drop could be attributed to an impurity of copper sulfide (Cu2S) being measured for resistance.	ArXiv
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory	USA	Simulation	N/A	※ ArXiv preprint – Theoretical 2023-08-02: This paper is a computer simulation report on how Copper may be interacting to make this possible. The concept of LK-99 may theoretically allow for high temperature superconductivity.	ArXiv
Southeast University (SEU Nanjing)	China	Report	Anomalous	※ ArXiv preprint – Also social media: Associated Bilibili and Lead: 科学调查局 @ Bilibili / Prof. Sun Yue of Southeast University 2023-07-31: Video report on 6 samples that match the X-ray data in the paper, but no signs of superconductivity. 2023-08-03: Progress report: Superconductivity was observed at 110K (-163.15°C) on one sample. On another sample, there was a superconductivity-style drop in resistance that did not go to zero. 2023-08-03 (later): ArXiv version of above: No Meissner effect observed. Notes that more data is required to determine cause and raising the critical temperature is an open question. 2023-08-10: 2nd ArXiv: Four types of resistance was found in a simple sample at different temperatures: Semiconductance, Below instrument resolution at 110K, resistance drop at 250 K, and linear at 7 K.	Bilibili Vid AI Subtitled Twitter Bilibili 2 AI Translated 2 ArXiv ArXiv 2
Princeton University Max Planck Institute Basque Foundation for Science (and others)	USA Germany Spain	Report	Fail	※ ArXiv preprint 2023-09-10: Conclusions: It might be ferromagnetism or antiferromagnetism. No strong signs of superconductivity, so either the chemical structure is incorrect or the calculations incorrect. Thorough analysis with various methods is recommended.	ArXiv
Peking University	China	Report	Success?	※ ArXiv preprint 2023-08-07: Half-levitating state observed. Other properties observed are semiconductivity, diamagnetism, and soft ferromagnetism. They also note that ferromagnetism in this type of material is unknown to them.	ArXiv
Max Planck Institute Institut Teknologi Bandung	Germany Indonesia	Report	Fail	※ ArXiv preprint 2023-08-11: Produced pure crystals of Pb10−xCux(PO4)6O (reported structure of LK-99) – resulting crystal was purple and transluscent. Result was highly insulating and diamagnetic. No superconductivity.	ArXiv
Indian Institute of Technology Jawaharlal Nehru University Indian Institute of Science Education and Research	India	Report	Fail	※ ArXiv preprint 2023-08-12: Also made a nickel-based version instead of copper. Found to be an insulator. Nickel version paramagnetic. Cu2S impurity also found. No superconductivity.	ArXiv
Lebedev Physical Institute (FIAN Russian Academy of Sciences)	Russia	Report	Fail	※ News Coverage 2023-08-08: Found to be an insulator. X-ray analysis appears identical.	Gazeta
Shanghai University	China	Report	Fail	※ News Coverage – Lab visit 2023-08-03: A journalist visited the lab. No diamagnetism observed.	Kanka News
National Taiwan University	Taiwan	Report	Fail	※ News Coverage – Livestream collaboration 2023-08-04: Livestreaming from PanSci, a Taiwan science news agency and YouTube account 2023-08-05: 2nd Livestream of opening and test. Result was some diamagnetism with resistance.	Stream1 Stream2
Qufu Normal University	China	Report	Fail	※ News Coverage – preceded by watermarked video on social media 2023-08-02: They have produced a grain with levitating properties. 2023-08-03: In an interview, resistance was high even when temperature was brought down to 50K (-223.15°C). They believe it is only diamagnetic.	Zhihu Vid Bilibili Vid Jiemian News
University of Manchester	UK	Report	Fail	※ ArXiv preprint & Official Website News 2023-08-02: Resistance was a few kiloOhms and no Meissner effect observed. 2023-08-08: ArXiv: Among other things, EDX (X-ray spectroscopy) analysis indicates iron contamination.	News page Vimeo ArXiv
Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH)	South Korea	Ongoing		※ Possesses an original sample of LK-99. 2023-08-08: They possess an electron microscope but are only interested in studying the conductivity for commercial purposes.	Digital Times
College of William & Mary	USA	Ongoing		※ Possesses an original sample of LK-99. 2023-08-02: Physics Professor Hyun-Tak Kim is a faculty member here and is the English liaison for the original preprint. Sample in transit.	Student News
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Argonne National Laboratory	USA	???	???	※ ××× No online activity, mentioned in passing during general interview 2023-07-27: Replication is ongoing. Theorist Michael Norman says “They come off as real amateurs. They don’t know much about superconductivity and the way they’ve presented some of the data is fishy.” 2023-08-02: In another general interview, Norman mentions that no levitation has occurred yet in their tests.	Science.org Marketplace
Nanjing University	China	???	???	※ ××× No online activity, mentioned in passing during general interview 2023-07-28: The article is mostly a summary of initial events and the reaction from the scientific world, as well as educating the reader on superconductivity. Physics Professor Wen Haihu says that the data is not convincing, but a colleague was sent to work on it.	ScienceNet.cn
University of Wollongong	Australia	???	???	※ ××× No online activity, mentioned in passing during general interview 2023-08-02: Fabrication was said to be difficult during attempts on the weekend (07-29/30)	CNet
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)	Australia	???	???	※ ××× No online activity, mentioned in passing during general interview 2023-08-08: Dr Richard Taylor and “other teams” is still working on acquiring materials, noting that it seems hard to synthesise.	SMH
University of Colorado Boulder	USA	???	???	※ ××× No online activity, mentioned in passing during general interview 2023-08-09: Basic tests for superconductivity failed, but open minded about a possible material of interest.	WaPo
Charles University	Czech Republic	Synth	???	※Official Twitter 2023-08-03: Synthesis begins. 2023-08-05: Base ingredients synthed, the final bake will be done at various ratios of Lanarkite and Cu3P. 2023-08-06: Ratio was incorrect and rebake is required. 2023-08-08: Copper phosphide completed.	TwitterTop
Sungkyunkwan University Korea University Seoul National University	South Korea	TBD	TBD	※Official Press Release 2023-08-02: Official statement from the Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics. The original plan was to wait for independent verification, but in response to the world’s reaction, they have formed a special verification committee. The head will be Professor Kim Chang-Yeong of Seoul National University. All three universities are beginning replication efforts.	Official press mirror&trans

Individual / Private

Individual	Country	Credentials	Status	Results	Notes / Summary	Sources
Andrew McCalip @ Twitter	USA	Head of R&D & Engineer at Varda Space Industries	Report	Success? (Declared Fail)	※Personal Verified Twitter – Independent after-hours project with coworkers, no association with Varda He’s liveblogging his progress on Twitter and also streaming the furnace burn on Twitch when possible. (If the stream is offline, may I suggest watching paint dry?) 2023-07-26: Realises he has all the tools and orders materials. 2023-07-31: Waiting for the Copper Phosphide synthesis/delivery from partners. (Red phosphorus cannot be obtained on short notice from a new customer in the USA due to DEA restrictions.) 2023-08-02: Cu3P has arrived and is processing. 2023-08-04: Synth complete, they have produced a grain with unusual properties. (clip 08-06) They also made an open call for labs to request samples. 2023-08-08: After several days of extraction and attempting to film it with a magnet, the samples are packed and sent to various labs part of the USC Materials Consortium. 2023-08-10: Final report, Day 12: USC report consisted of EDS and XRD (various types of x-ray analysis). Levitating pieces contained impurities of copper sulfide and iron. He also references the Chinese Academy of Sciences preprint (see above) with the copper sulfide impurity as being the likely source of resistance drops. No more updates are expected.	TwitterDay2 TwitterDay2.5 TwitterDay4 Twitch twitterDay8 twitterDay8.5 Day12
Iris Alexandra & Nelke Alexandra @ Twitter	Russia	Junior Researcher at Institute of Gene Biology Russian Academy of Sciences	Complete	Success?	※Personal Unverified Twitter – Independent academic project, speaks quite openly on theory This is a new personal Twitter user (April 2023 for Iris, May 2023 for Nelke) with a descriptor of “resident plant physiology and method refinement nerd.” and “Drosophila & Chromatin researcher“, respectively 2023-07-30: Iris criticised the synthesis method of the Lanarkite and Copper Phosphide and used a significantly faster method with chemistry, reducing time from 48 hours to 15 minutes. 2023-07-31: They have produced a grain of material with levitating properties. 2023-08-04: Visited Moscow Engineering Physics Institute for analysis. 2023-08-12: Zero resistance transition found at 7°C. Preprint in progress.	Twitter_1 Twitter_2 Twitter_3
zoubair @ Twitter	France	PhD Student at Solid State Chemistry and Energy Lab Collège de France	Complete	Fail	※Personal Unverified Twitter – Independent academic project 2023-08-01: A Twitter user has commented that they are part of the lab and is working on it, but this is not an official work. The lab specialises in battery technology. They appear to be a PhD student and is posting photos of the effort. 2023-08-01 (PM): Synthesis did not work correctly. Material is red in colour. 2023-08-02: 2nd attempt failure, X-ray indicates a few anomalies. 2023-08-04: According to X-ray, they believe it’s a highly pure facsimile of LK-99, but there’s no sign of superconductivity. A different cause of SC is suspected. When comparing against a Chinese x-ray, he notes that sulfur is missing in his version. Iris points out that industrial phosphorus is contaminated with sulfur. No more updates are expected.	Twitter 1 Twitter 2
@shir0kawa @ Twitter	???	???	Complete	Success?	※Personal Unverified Twitter – Could be someone from the Columbia Makerspace. Account has little post history. 2023-08-03: Preliminary synth began on 08-01 and is continuing. 2023-08-09: A small flake of material with a magnetic reaction was produced. More attempts are being done. 2023-08-10: Second photo. They note that they don’t have any analysis equipment to proceed further. The sample is less than 1mm in size. No more updates are expected.
半导体与物理 @ Zhihu	China	???	Complete	Success?	※Message Board – unidentified This person was regularly posting screenshots of their synthesis procedure on a forum thread. 2023-08-02: They have posted a video of a video microscope – they have produced a grain with anomalous properties.	Zhihu Zhihu Vid
胡豆 @ Zhihu	China	???	Complete	Fail	※Message Board – unidentified This person is liveblogging their synthesis on a forum thread by editing the post on a daily basis. 2023-07-28 onward: They performed the first attempt without quartz tubing, and used a vacuum tube instead. They are referencing the other efforts to make it. For example, they are critical of Iris’s synthesis but is using her Cu3P imagery for reference, and is copying the method from Southeast University. 2023-08-06: Final material had no response to magnets. The quartz tube sealing device also arrived and they are trying again. 2023-08-09: 2nd synth complete, no response to magnets. They comment on the preprint by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There are no more updates with a datestamp after this date. No more updates are expected.	Zhihu
Elephantech / Shinya Shimizu @ Twitter	Japan	Founder and CEO of Elephantech, PCB manufacturer	Complete		※Personal Verified Twitter – CEO JP account (also has EN and company Twitter) 2023-08-08: Synthesising Copper Phosphide. 2023-08-12: No magnetic reactions observed. Due to the upcoming Obon holiday in Japan, updates are expected to slow down (and pass the final update of this table) 2023-08-14: In response to the Max Planck Institute’s preprint, they do not see a reason to continue unless there’s more data. 2nd synth will be performed to completion, but no more updates are expected.	Jp CEO Twitter
真·凤舞九天 @ Bilibili	China	Popular Science channel	Report	Success?	※Popular Science channel with high production value 2023-08-09: Created a speck that is reacting to a magnet. Footage and report on speck begins at 5:45. Apparently it looks like a ferromagnet, but on close inspection they say it is levitating.	Bilibili

Removed

Individual	Country	Credentials	Status	Results	Notes / Summary	Sources
Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences	China				※ Unverified rumours 2023-07-28: Unsubstantiated claims of success or failure were made immediately after the story broke. Official accounts say they are not aware of any in-house replication attempts. ArXiv preprint uploaded several weeks later, re-added to table	Zhihu_1 Zhihu_2 Zhihu_3
关山口男子技师 @ Bilibili	China	Claims to work at HUST confirmed	Complete	1-4: Fail	Claims that they are from HUST. Livestreamed/posted video on 4 sample experiments. All 4 samples failed to display any magnetic reaction – however, they close the video by saying that 4 independent tests don’t override the sample sizes of the original paper. HUST affiliation appears to be confirmed, moved from private to academia table	Bilibili_1 Bilibili_2 Bilibili_3 Twitter
amita @ Zhihu	???	Likely Fraudulent	Complete	Fail	This user is only writing a forum post with second-hand reporting. There is apparently another failure somewhere, but there are also references to the bilibili streamer above (the one with the 4 samples).	Zhihu
科研农民工 @ Zhihu & Bilibili	China	???		Success?	※Personal Social Media 2023-08-02: They have produced a grain with anomalous properties. The Chinese watermark says “Source: Qufu Normal University High Pressure Science Team“ 2023-08-06: Qufu University affiliation confirmed, moved from private to academia table	Zhihu Vid Bilibili Vid

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It’s Over / It’s Not Over: The online rollercoaster of emotion

This is a short personal note for readers, where I would like to point out that scientific research is never a yes/no confirmation. It is a gradual move towards a 0% or 100% (but never getting there) as more data is obtained, and more and more scientists try variations and refinements.

Since this is a physical material and not a piece of software that can be instantly installed, one must also consider that ingredients need to be ordered, shipped, recieved, and processed over time. People need sleep. Korea, Japan, Australia, Europe and America are all in different timezones. People have jobs. I have no specific tweet to point at, but I have seen some occasional criticism of the current buzz to this effect. Things move quickly, and I only have a certain amount of time to check and update things, as does everyone else.

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Preprint Spreadsheet (2023-08-18)

I studied all of the theory preprints to see if it was worth adding to the article or table. I considered making a new article to highlight this but I’m aware some people have bookmarked this page, so it’s here for now.

(I’m not comfortable updating this post forever since it doesn’t count as activity – this was added after the 14th ie. over two weeks later.)

Please note: The “Conclusions ” column is obviously not comprehensive and consists of the main takeaways based on my own reading. There may be more details and hypotheses missing. If conductance is “???”, it means the preprint did not clearly report a conductance test and they only tested magnetism.