Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Why a blockbuster superconductivity claim met a wall of scepticism

Physicist Ranga Dias and his colleagues have twice claimed to make a room-temperature superconductor. But many researchers question the evidence.
  1. Edwin Cartlidge

    1. Edwin Cartlidge is a reporter in Rome.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Ranga Dias poses for a portrait at the University of Rochester in 2022.

Ranga Dias is at the centre of a controversy over his research on superconductors. Credit: Lauren Petracca/New York Times/Redux/eyevine

Rumours were flying in Las Vegas, Nevada, ahead of a session of the American Physical Society meeting on 7 March. The buzz was that Ranga Dias, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York, would be making a stunning announcement. When Dias’s 3 p.m. session started, so many scientists and journalists were packed into room 212 that meeting organizers had to usher latecomers into an overflow site to watch his presentation on video.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 621, 26-30 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02733-z

References

  1. Dasenbrock-Gammon, N. et al. Nature 615, 244–250 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Snider, E. et al. Nature 586, 373–377 (2022); retraction 610, 804 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Drozdov, A. P., Eremets, M. I., Troyan, I. A., Ksenofontov. V. & Shylin, S. I. Nature 525, 73–76 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Somayazulu, M. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 027001 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Van der Marel, D. & Hirsch, J. E. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.07686v2 (2022).

  6. Dias, R. P. & Salamat, A. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.15017 (2021).

  7. Dias, R. P. & Salamat, A. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.11883 (2022).

  8. Van der Marel, D. & Hirsch, J. E. Int. J. Mod. Phys. B. 37, 2375001 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Pasan, H. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.08622 (2023).

  10. Salke, N. P., Mark, A. C., Ahart, M. & Hemley, R. J. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.06301 (2023).

  11. Ming, X. et al. Nature 620, 72–77 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Xing, X. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17587 (2023).

  13. Cai, S. et al. Matter Radiat. Extrem. 8, 048001 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Peng, D. et al. Matter Radiat. Extrem. 8, 058401 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Denchfield A., Park, H. & Hemley, R. J. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.18196 (2023)

  16. Durkee, D. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 079902 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links