Claims about the discovery of a coveted room-temperature superconductor peppered the news in 2023. We pulled three stories from our archives on what superconductivity is and why scientists study it.
A complex cooling rig is needed to maintain the ultracold working temperatures required by a superconducting quantum computer.
IBM
After decades of hype, quantum computers are on the verge of becoming useful. Here’s a refresher on why they’re such a big deal
Photograph of the first Solvay Conference in 1911 at the Hotel Metropole. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes is standing third from the right.
Benjamin Couprie/Wikimedia Commons
Superconductivity may sound like science fiction, but the first experiments to achieve it were conducted over a century ago. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, credited with the discovery, won a Nobel Prize in 1913.
Superconductors make highly efficient electronics, but the ultralow temperatures and ultrahigh pressures make them costly and difficult to use. Room-temperature superconductors promise to change that.
Magnetic levitation is just one of the interesting attributes that make superconductors so interesting.
Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library vie Getty Images
Superconductors are materials that can transmit electricity without any resistance. Researchers are getting closer to creating superconducting materials that can function in everyday life.
Superconducting cables transmit electicity without losses.
Shutterstock
Pegor Aynajian, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Generating energy usually means wasted heat. Semiconductors let the electrons flow with zero waste – but so far scientists only know how to get them to work at ultra-low temperatures.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in his laboratory in Leiden.
Marine Joumard
Helium lifts balloons and makes our voices squeak. But its supply on Earth is finite and is critical for modern industrial processes and medical imaging in hospitals. How worried should we be?
Layering substances like graphene in new ways could help us to build quantum computers or transmit electricity over long distances.
Strange new materials that propel the fictional Star Trek universe are being developed by scientists in reality today. Above, the USS Discovery accelerates to warp speed in an artist’s rendition for the TV series Star Trek Discovery.
(Handout)
Just what is a superconductor? And what can it be used for? Research using superconductors at higher temperatures opens up more possibilities for this fascinating class of materials.