Nature retracts a paper on room temperature superconductivity, the second retraction in 1 year and 2 months since a previous paper by the same author was retracted

Nature, which had published the paper on room-temperature superconductivity, published on March 8, 2023 by a research team led by Ranga Diaz of the University of Rochester, has decided to withdraw it. This is the second time in about 1 year and 2 months that Ranga Diaz's paper has been retracted from Nature since September 2022.

Retraction Note: Evidence of near-ambient superconductivity in a N-doped lutetium hydride | Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06774-2

Nature retracts controversial superconductivity paper by embattled physicist
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03398-4

Superconductivity is a phenomenon in which the electrical resistance of certain metals and compounds becomes zero when they are extremely cooled. ' Room-temperature superconductivity, ' in which a substance becomes superconducting at room temperature, is a phenomenon that occurs in various applications such as linear motor cars and quantum computers. This is a dream technology that is expected to be applied to new technologies. Many researchers are conducting research to realize this, and Diaz was one of the researchers working on room-temperature superconductivity.

Diaz and his team published a paper in October 2020 claiming to have achieved room-temperature superconductivity , but due to lack of raw data and failure of reproduction experiments, the paper was published in 2022. It was withdrawn from Nature in September. The withdrawal in September 2022 is explained in detail in the article below.

How did the dream paper on 'room temperature superconductivity' become blank? - GIGAZINE

On March 8, 2023, Diaz published a paper claiming that he had once again achieved room temperature superconductivity. There is no doubt that research on superconductivity would advance rapidly if it were actually realized, but since the paper by the lead author, Diaz, had been retracted in the past, there were doubts that the results were ``another fraudulent result.'' The voice was rising. You can check the state of the announcement in March 2023 in the article below.

A groundbreaking paper claiming to have achieved 'room temperature superconductivity' is announced, but there are also doubts due to the research team's past fraud allegations - GIGAZINE

Diaz has denied all allegations of wrongdoing against him, saying of the March 2023 paper, ``We did our best this time. The reviewers had access to all the data, including the technology.'' ”, stressing that they were transparent about Nature's very thorough review process, but at the request of eight co-authors and because of concerns about the content of the paper. The paper will be retracted again on November 7, 2023.

The eight co-authors said the paper did not accurately reflect the sources of the materials studied, how the experiments were measured, and how the data was processed, and that these issues undermined the integrity of the published paper. Additionally, in addition to the co-authors' points, concerns have been raised regarding the reliability of the electrical resistance data presented in the paper, and a Nature investigation and post-publication review concluded that the concerns remain significant and unresolved. The paper was decided to be retracted based on these two points.

Regarding room-temperature superconductivity , a paper was published in July 2023 that claimed to have achieved superconductivity at room temperature and normal pressure , but the experiment was not successful in reproducing it, and many scientists were skeptical as shown in the article below. A certain point of view is being cast.

Scientific journal Nature expresses skepticism about 'LK-99', which is said to be a normal temperature and pressure superconductor - GIGAZINE

In addition, some physicists raised questions about Nature's editorial review process and why the reviewers did not understand the issues, but Karl Ziemeris, Nature's physical sciences editor-in-chief, said: Regarding the reason why it is difficult to discover problems through peer review of papers, he says, ``Peer review does not tell whether the content of the paper accurately reflects the experiment that was actually conducted.''