This is hardly an impressive portion. "The amount is so teeny that it's extremely difficult to characterize," Esquinazi says. But the notion that anything can be superconductive at room temperature, especially a substance as cheap and easily fabricated as graphite and water, would be a major discovery.

"If you can make a material with zero resistance that's easy to manipulate and doesn't need [to be cooled with] liquid nitrogen, it can change the transmission of power, levitate trains, do many, many things," says physicist Ivan Schuller of the University of California, San Diego. Their speedy and efficient transmission of electricity could let superconductors improve power lines and even handheld electronic devices. But it's hard to imagine superconductors in the electric grid, the transportation system or your computer when they require continuous cooling with liquid nitrogen. If graphite powder, a simple and easily obtainable material, is really superconductive at room temperature, it could revolutionize current technology.

"Potentially, if it would be true, it's a major discovery," Schuller says. "The question is if it is true. And that's the part that has to be first scientifically determined." Schuller thinks that the finding needs more proof, especially because it is such an extraordinary claim. The researchers have not demonstrated that their sample has exhibited zero resistance, a transition temperature or even the Josephson effect. All that the graphite powder has is a slight diamagnetism.

Schuller says, "This must be reproduced in the same sample, then from sample to sample in their lab—and then in different labs. Scientists have to discuss and debate and argue and figure out if it's right or wrong. That's how science works. Then maybe one can come to some sort of conclusion."

Eminent physicist Theodore Geballe, an emeritus professor at Stanford University, agreed that when it comes to room-temperature superconductors, a lot of uncertainty—and a lot of work—remains. Although hints of room-temperature superconductivity in graphite are tantalizing, he said, "before they can be considered real, they must be identified. I hope it will be done in work following the present report, but am not at all optimistic."

And in fact, the researchers themselves agree that more proof is necessary before a graphite room-temperature superconductor can be proclaimed. "Other people have to do similar experiments and prove it's really superconductivity," Esquinazi says. "This is a very tricky experiment and the signal is very small." After that his team would need to increase the proportion of superconductive material in their sample, and then to study its properties.

"Then if the properties of a superconductor are good enough and stable enough at room temperature," he says, "this will be a revolution. We are really at the very beginning."