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Aug 05, 2023

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Truly convenient materials that can conduct electricity perfectly have long been sought after by researchers, but their history is one of difficult experiments, theoretical puzzles and scientific

Truly convenient materials that can conduct electricity perfectly have long been sought after by researchers, but their history is one of difficult experiments, theoretical puzzles and scientific controversy

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

28 July 2023

Room-temperature superconductors could be transformative for science

Science Photo Library/Alamy

It has been over a hundred years since researchers discovered that some materials can conduct electricity perfectly. Such a superconductor could be transformative for science and technology, but all claims of creating one that would work at room temperature and pressure, including recent studies of a material named LK-99, have proven controversial.

Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 when physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes noticed that a mercury wire cooled to about -269°C (-452°F) doesn’t resist the flow of electricity. Within a few years materials …

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