# Lk 99 Room Temperature Superconductor LK-99 is a modified lead-apatite material that South Korean researchers claimed in July 2023 could superconduct at room temperature and ambient pressure, sparking a viral wave of Twitter threads, kitchen replication attempts, and meme edits before independent labs largely debunked the finding. ## Overview LK-99 is the name given to a slightly modified lead-apatite crystal that a small Korean team claimed showed superconductivity at room temperature and ambient pressure, a combination physicists had chased for decades[1]. A working room-temperature superconductor would in theory enable lossless power grids, cheap MRI machines, and floating maglev transport, which is why the July 2023 arXiv preprints detonated across science Twitter almost immediately[2]. The meme side of LK-99 is less about a single image format and more about a two-week burst of tweets, explainer threads, prediction-market bets, and shitposts. Wobbly video of a grey pellet allegedly levitating above a magnet became the visual shorthand, remixed alongside Oppenheimer references, I Should Buy a Boat edits, and Ice Cream So Good jokes about a suddenly post-scarcity future[3]. ## How It Spread The story went viral on July 25, 2023, when the Twitter account @AiBreakfast posted a video of the levitating LK-99 pellet, and Princeton graduate Alex Kaplan wrote a long thread walking non-physicists through what a working superconductor would actually change, racking up more than 128,000 likes over the following month[3]. Within hours, meme accounts joined in, with @Brad08414464 posting an I Should Buy a Boat edit on July 26 and @netcapgirl reworking the Ice Cream So Good format the same day[3]. On July 29, soil scientist and Twitter user @iris_IGB started a thread narrating her attempt to replicate LK-99 in her home kitchen, and on July 30 she posted photos of a tiny black speck she said was being held up by "superdiamagnetism," which onlookers dubbed the "Russian Catgirl replication"[3]. Two days later, on July 31, Berkeley Lab physicist Sinéad Griffin dropped a Department of Energy supercomputer simulation on arXiv suggesting LK-99 could, in principle, superconduct if the copper substitutions landed on the right sites, and her tweet with a Mic Drop GIF cleared 8,100 likes in a day[6]. Betting followed the hype. Manifold Markets ran a widely shared market on whether LK-99 would be confirmed as a room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor before 2025, with the odds swinging between roughly 30 and 40 percent through early August 2023 before collapsing as replication attempts failed[7]. A January 3, 2024 paper from a Chinese group hinting at a similar candidate briefly revived hope, but posters like @pronounced_kyle greeted it with jokes about being willing to "get hurt again"[3]. ## How to Use The LK-99 format is typically used as a shorthand for premature science hype, often pairing the shaky levitating-pellet video with captions about buying a boat, retiring early, or otherwise reorganising one's life around imminent utopia. A common convention is to react to any new science preprint with "LK-99 all over again" or similar phrasing, and edits often riff on the Oppenheimer film that opened around the same weekend[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Lk 99 Room Temperature Superconductor? LK-99 is a copper-doped lead-apatite material that Korean researchers claimed in a July 22, 2023 arXiv preprint could superconduct at room temperature and ambient pressure, a combination long considered a holy grail in physics[1][2]. ### Where did Lk 99 Room Temperature Superconductor come from? The material was described in two arXiv preprints posted on July 22, 2023 by a Korean team including Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim, and it went viral three days later through a thread by @alexkaplan0 and a widely shared video from @AiBreakfast[1][3]. ### What does Lk 99 Room Temperature Superconductor mean? As a meme, LK-99 is shorthand for a burst of online science hype about a supposed breakthrough, wrapped in Oppenheimer jokes, prediction-market bets, and shaky levitation clips, that mostly deflated once replication attempts failed to reproduce the effect[3][7]. ### How do you use Lk 99 Room Temperature Superconductor? People typically invoke LK-99 to mock or celebrate speculative science news, often by reposting the original levitating-pellet clip with captions about quitting their job or by comparing a new preprint to the July 2023 frenzy documented on Twitter[3]. ### Is Lk 99 Room Temperature Superconductor still popular? The peak virality was late July and early August 2023, with a smaller revival around a January 3, 2024 Chinese follow-up paper, and it is now cited mostly as a cautionary reference point in science-Twitter discussions[3]. ## References 1. [https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.12008]() 2. [https://inews.co.uk/news/science/room-temperature-superconductors-latest-breakthrough-nonsense-2506774]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/room-temperature-superconductor-lk-99]() 4. [https://x.com/i/status/1684020175215927296]() 5. [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02895-2]() 6. [https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.16892]() 7. [https://manifold.markets/QuantumObserver/will-the-lk99-room-temp-ambient-pre]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/lk-99-room-temperature-superconductor Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library