Fascinating and stumping problem from Scientific American. (1 Viewer)

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You have a single blue cube and an unlimited number of red cubes, all of identical dimensions.
What is the maximum number of red cubes that can touch the blue cube along it's sides or part of it's sides?

Heavy discussion has occured for this problem at Brilliant.org, which is where I originally found this problem.
Link here
So it would seem that the solution is 24 (Given by the article itself at time of publication), but to date, nobody has yet found a configuration of cubes that would enable 24 red cubes to have non-intersecting planar contact along the faces of the cube.

I put the problem here in the hopes that one day, we will finally have a solution.
 

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