Some scientists were immediately suspicious of what the researchers led by Ranga Dias from the University of Rochester reported two years ago in the renowned British journal "Nature" and shortly afterwards was named the breakthrough of the year 2020 by the American counterpart "Science".
Dias and his colleagues caused a sensation with the news that they had found the first superconductor that loses its electrical resistance even at temperatures above zero.
Hopes for fantastic applications - loss-free power grids or cheap magnets for MRT machines - were quickly awakened.
With their mixture of carbon, sulfur and hydrogen, the researchers seemed to have actually broken the “sound barrier” of superconductivity, even if only at extremely high pressures.
In any case, the measurement curves presented convinced the experts commissioned by “Nature”.
But other scientists, such as the controversial San Diego theorist Jorge Hirsch, have strong doubts.
Above all, the way in which the disturbing background in the measurement curves was corrected is a thorn in their side, as there is nothing about it in the original work.
In the meantime, the person responsible for "Nature" seems to have become too sensitive.
Because they withdrew the study - under protest from Dias and his comrades-in-arms, who are sticking to their results.
You can come to her laboratory in Rochester at any time and see for yourself.
So far, however, no other group has succeeded in reproducing the measurement curves.
Hirsch, the sanctions against Dias do not go far enough.
For him, the supposed superconductivity is just an ordinary metallic state.
No matter how the Causa Dias develops, the often scolded research control mechanism seems to work well here.