This year, superconductivity — the flow of electric current with zero resistance — was discovered in three distinct materials. Two instances stretch the textbook understanding of the phenomenon. The third shreds it completely. “It’s an extremely unusual form of superconductivity that a lot of people would have said is not possible,” said Ashvin Vishwanath (opens a new tab), a physicist at Harvard University who was not involved in the discoveries.
Ever since 1911, when the Dutch scientist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first saw electrical resistance vanish, superconductivity has captivated physicists. There’s the pure mystery of how it happens: The phenomenon requires electrons, which carry electrical current, to pair up. Electrons repel each other, so how can they be united?
Then there’s the technological promise: Already, superconductivity has enabled the development of MRI machines and powerful particle colliders. If physicists could fully understand how and when the phenomenon arises, perhaps they could engineer a wire that superconducts electricity under everyday conditions rather than exclusively at low temperatures, as is currently the case. World-altering technologies — lossless power grids, magnetically levitating vehicles — might follow.
The recent spate of discoveries has both compounded the mystery of superconductivity and heightened the optimism. “It seems to be, in materials, that superconductivity is everywhere,” said Matthew Yankowitz (opens a new tab), a physicist at the University of Washington.
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