Saw the title and thought "oh, I'll bet it is at some insane high pressure or some other exotic condition". Clicked through to an image of a diamond anvil. Not disappointed.
I'm actually really happy they put the catch at the top of the article.
It's so annoying to read science articles about how X will revolutionize Y, but you have to dig through the comments section to find out why it won't work.
Most new research findings only have very specific applications. It's only groundbreaking when something can (eventually) be implemented in real life for a reasonable cost.
Quanta does some of the best science reporting. They have a knack for making highly complex and technical concepts accessible to the general public without sacrificing accuracy.
They don't get points for putting it at the top of the article - all they're doing is correcting their own misleading title.
And yes, I say misleading. Technically true but misleading, because their omission is absolutely critical to the nature of their breakthrough and as you implied, anyone who knows the first thing about room temperature superconductors will want to know if the material has a drawback stopping it from functioning outside of a strictly lab setting.
It's so annoying to read science articles about how X will revolutionize Y, but you have to dig through the comments section to find out why it won't work.
Most new research findings only have very specific applications. It's only groundbreaking when something can (eventually) be implemented in real life for a reasonable cost.