Nuclear fusion.

Marty McFly's hoverboard.

- He's on a hoverboard.

- [Narrator] It sounds like the future

but many scientists say these types

of advances aren't as far away as we think.

They all hinge on one thing, a room-temperature,

ambient pressure superconductor, and in July,

some scientists claimed to have found just that,

sending stock prices for companies

with a perceived connection to superconductors soaring.

- A breakthrough like this

really could mean longer lasting batteries for our devices,

revolutionizing medical imaging.

It could mean more efficient electrical grids.

It could mean improved high speed trains.

There's almost no aspect

of our daily life that a room-temperature,

ambient pressure superconductor wouldn't touch

if commercially applied.

- [Narrator] That's why investors,

despite doubts surrounding the search,

are still backing the effort.

Here's where the science stands

and what it could take

to bring such a superconductor to market.

When electricity flows from one place to another,

it travels along some type of conductor, usually a metal.

Those conductors put up some resistance, which results

in some of the energy being lost as heat.

That's why your phone or computer can get really warm.

Superconductors eliminate that resistance

and can transmit energy without loss.

- Superconductors, obviously,

if they conduct electric current perfectly,

it means they're extremely efficient.

- [Narrator] But these materials typically only work

in extreme conditions,

temperatures as cold

as roughly negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit

or extremely high pressure.

- There's always an investment

to do the necessary cryogenics.

If you're using copper and it has a little bit of loss

but the superconductor is much more expensive

for most of your applications,

you might wanna use copper instead.

Just because you have a superconductor,

the question is whether it's gonna be useful or not.

- [Narrator] Because of that,

superconductors, as they exist today, are used

in limited circumstances, for example, MRI machines

but there's also been investment in broader uses.

The Departments of Energy and Homeland Security

have funded initiatives to create more resilient power grids

using superconducting cables, like one

in Chicago that uses liquid nitrogen to keep cables cool.

- Ultimately, the reason why people are so interested

in this space in terms of investment especially

is because unlocking a room-temperature

and pressure superconductor again,

would revolutionize medical imaging.

It would make it so that magnetically levitating trains

were more accessible, cheaper to build, more efficient.

It would make it so that our electrical grids

truly would become revolutionized.

- [Narrator] Because superconductors potentially

promise huge advances in technology,

finding one that can work at room-temperature

and ambient pressure has become a holy grail

for scientists and investors.

A group led by scientists at the University of Rochester

claimed to make a major breakthrough in March.

A superconductor made of rare-earth material combined

with nitrogen and hydrogen that they said worked

at roughly room temperature.

The study was peer reviewed

but the lead researcher has come under scrutiny.

The University of Rochester-led group

did not respond to requests for comment.

Then two other papers released in July

detailed a potential superconductor

called LK-99 that combined copper, lead,

phosphorus and oxygen

and worked at room temperature and ambient pressure.

Videos of the substance floating above a magnet,

a hallmark of superconductivity, circulated online.

But those papers, written by researchers who mostly worked

for the privately held Quantum Energy Research Center,

haven't yet been peer reviewed

and many scientists say LK-99 is just a magnet

rather than a superconducting material.

- Many groups had difficulty replicating the experiment.

- [Narrator] The Quantum Energy Research Center

didn't respond to requests for comment.

Still, the enthusiasm for the July research

triggered big stock swings for companies like SuNAM,

Mobiis and American Superconductor.

Before a room-temperature, ambient pressure superconductor

can be brought to market,

it needs to be replicated regularly in trials.

That's what Norman's group

at Argonne National Laboratory

is trying to do now with LK-99.

- It's gonna sort of take a while to sort out

what's actually going on there.

It opens up the space, right?

There's lots and lots of minerals out there,

very few that have been studied from a physics perspective.

Maybe there are other surprises out there waiting for us.

- [Narrator] Replicating results can take weeks or months,

if even possible.

Then its production needs to be scaled up,

which can take much longer.

- It's one thing having little microscopic samples

in your laboratory, it's another thing

to make kilometer-long wires.

We just don't know.

Until you know what the material is

and how easy it is to make,

and then it's like how can you wrap it

and make a wire out of it?

Until you know those things, it's really hard to figure out

what kind of lag will be from discovery to applications.

- [Narrator] The superconductor cable system used

for the power grid in Chicago took years

and approximately $19 million to implement.

- Any discovery or invention or change

in the field is ultimately net positive.

So it's almost like a nothing to lose,

everything to gain scenario.

It's not like they have spent decades researching this,

trying new recipes, and it has yielded no results.

So it's perhaps just a matter of time.

(pensive music)