Michael Hiltzik: How a scientific 'breakthrough' fell apart amid allegations of plagiarism and fakery

As scientific breakthroughs go, the one announced last March by a team from the University of Rochester was especially eye-opening.

Led by physicist/engineer Ranga P. Dias, they reported in an article in Nature the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor — a material that can conduct electricity with no loss of efficiency from friction and no production of heat.

The paper generated breathless news reports touting the prospect for batteries of unprecedented efficiency and electrical devices of unprecedented power —potentially "longer-lasting batteries, more-efficient power grids and improved high-speed trains," the Wall Street Journal wrote the day after Nature's publication.

Sadly, those advances still lurk far off in the future. The article that set off a frenzy of speculation and anticipation was retracted by Nature on Tuesday after months of rising doubts about its claims and Dias, its lead author.

Dias didn't reply to my request for comment. A representative speaking" The remaining eight co-authors, however, had requested the retraction.