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This is a great example of scientific reporting: it deals with the findings of the research itself rather than some "human" narrative, and it names and cites the actual materials and publications involved while using common language where possible.

Also, a very cool finding. Interesting that only a few picometers of atomic shift yields superconductivity at room temperature.



It might not sound like a lot but you need to put it in the scale of the atoms. That is about a 1% change in atomic spacing, which means a 1% strain applied to the sample, which is pretty big (think about how much weight you'd need to hang off of a steel bar to get it to stretch by 1%).

Pressure and strain are known to have large effects on superconductivity. In fact the highest known Tc of any material is HgBCuO under externally applied pressure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-temperature_superconductiv...).




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