[yiyus]

I am a material scientist. Everyday, I see failed attempts to replicate samples. Slightly different compositions, slightly different heat treatments, subtle differences in crystallographic texture or the arrangement of inclusions that unexpectedly change the properties of your material in mysterious ways.

And I know nothing about superconductors, I am talking about steel, a material that we have worked with for centuries, it's in the first chapter of every textbook and is practically everywhere.

Things are hard.

[jacquesm]

YES! This is exactly my experience. Even if I do stuff myself it is often very hard to get to consistency, there are almost always more variables in play than the ones that I'm initially aware of. I've seen seasoned pros driven to despair by things that 'worked in the lab' but that they could not replicate outside of it for want of a simple oversight. Sometimes the line between success and failure is hair-thin, you can be almost there and never realize it.