The program that generates recipes for new materials is like a whimsical chef: a self-learning algorithm suggests hundreds of combinations, but only a few can be brought to life. To avoid wasting time on failed experiments, scientists applied a triple sieve. First, a computer model filters out incompatible atoms, like baking soda and vinegar. Then comes a heat test: the drive toward disorder destroys most structures. The third stage is a recalculation check. Out of 894 ideas, 25 survived — like gold specks in seawater. A twist: there were almost no calculation errors; heat simply reshapes atoms into more stable, but often useless, forms — like a cake turning itself into a dry rusk. These 25 candidates promise wires without energy loss, quantum computers, and quantum memory devices. To study them, they are 'illuminated' by various beams — a modern version of the old toothpick test for a pie. The theoretical foundation was laid by Schrödinger and Feynman. The thermodynamics of atoms suggests that perfection is unreachable, but these 25 are, for now, the best catch.
Less than 3% of computer predictions proved viable — roughly the same fraction of gold dissolved in ocean water.
The idea of computer-predicted materials echoes Neal Stephenson's novel 'The Diamond Age,' where nanotechnology creates matter from digital blueprints.