Nature, US Research Team Retracts Paper on 'Room-Temperature Superconducting Material Development'

The world-renowned scientific journal Nature has retracted a paper by a U.S. research team that claimed to have discovered a material exhibiting superconductivity at 20.5 degrees Celsius, citing concerns over the paper's credibility.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 7th (local time), Nature announced on the same day, "Doubts within the scientific community regarding the superconducting material discovery paper have not yet been resolved," and made this decision.

Earlier, a research team led by Dr. Ranga Dias, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the University of Rochester, published a paper in March through Nature claiming to have developed a superconducting material called "Nitrogen-Doped Lutetium Hydride" (NDLH). The main point was that applying high pressure to the NDLH developed by the team would enable it to exhibit superconducting properties even at room temperature.

However, the scientific community raised doubts about the credibility of the team's paper. The claims made in the paper were not reproduced by other laboratories, and controversy intensified as Dr. Dias, who led the team, had several of his previously published papers retracted. Last year, Nature retracted Dr. Dias's 2020 paper claiming the discovery of a separate superconducting material. The international physics journal PRL retracted another superconductivity-related paper by Dr. Dias's team in July this year after discovering data manipulation.

Additionally, Dr. Dias is reportedly facing allegations of plagiarism related to past papers. He is currently strongly asserting his innocence regarding the data manipulation allegations and other accusations.

Meanwhile, the University of Rochester is also reported to have launched an investigation into Dr. Dias's overall research.

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