Plot has leaked for Oppenheimer sequel.
Title: K-Sci
Lee and Kim are disciples of Korea University Dept of Chemistry head TS Chair.
TS Chair comes up with a one-dimensional room temperature superconductor (SC) theory and publishes in 1994.
Lee, the theoretician, takes up the mantle, publishes his Masters thesis on “Explanation of Superconductivity by the ISB Theory” in 1995.
Meets Kim 1996. Kim is the experimental chemist and synthesis specialist. Lee and Kim discover a trace of the SC material in 1999.
Lee finished his PhD in 2004, after a 9 year slog with the thesis “Theoretical Proposal and Synthesis of New Polymer Superconductors”. Kim graduates with his PhD in the same year (maybe same PhD shared between the two?)
Both need to make money. Kim joins a battery materials company. Lee becomes a adjunct professor. Neither publishes at all.
4 years later, in 2008, Lee sets up Qcenter, which works on superconductivity while also doing consulting work for the big chaebols. Kim splits his time between the battery materials firm and Qcenter.
Somewhere along the way, TS Chair passes, and his dying wish is that the students find the room temperature superconductor and prove his theory.
In 2017, they start work on the final ramp. They have enough results to raise money. They go scrounge for dollars. I don’t think they get funded well. They get funding from some SME type industrial businesses, one in skincare and the other in auto parts.
YH Kwon, a physics professor, joins in early 2018 joins the team as CTO but continues to hold his university appointment.
By 2019 they’ve confirmed it’s a room temp SC and file a Korean patent for “production of low resistance ceramic compound”.
2020 Covid hits, and the team goes into monk mode. They finally isolate the SC, obtain its crystal and analyze its structure.
They make a Nature submission and get rejected because of the Ranga Dias controversy. They’re asked to publish locally and get it peer reviewed. They bring onboard HT Kim from the US at this point (guessing on timeline).
2021 - they print another patent => mfg superconducting material at normal temp and pressures. They start work on chemical vapor deposition and are successful. They file an additional patent
CVD is how you add this to our current manufacturing stacks.
YK Kwon takes a sabbatical and goes off to Seoul National University at in Sept. Was he still part of the team after this ?
Kim later posts an anti-physicist rant on LinkedIn.
March 2023 - international patent filed.
At the same time, Ranga Dias story comes out. JH Kim posts a comment to the story on LinkedIn “A retracted paper and an article in controversy immediately upon publication. It’s bittersweet. I really hope it’s findings are true”.
In the 6 author paper, they very carefully lay out which of the authors did what planning, coding etc and what share of credit they deserve (equal, lead, support etc)
It’s replicate or bust. They know no one will believe them otherwise.