superconductivity – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 Will Better Superconductors Transform the World? https://www.quantamagazine.org/will-better-superconductors-transform-the-world-20240509/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/will-better-superconductors-transform-the-world-20240509/#respond Thu, 09 May 2024 13:03:57 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137831 The post Will Better Superconductors Transform the World? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> If superconductors — materials that conduct electricity without any resistance — worked at temperatures and pressures close to what we would consider normal, they would be world-changing. They could dramatically amplify power grids, levitate high-speed trains and enable more affordable medical technologies. For more than a century, physicists have tinkered with different compounds and...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/will-better-superconductors-transform-the-world-20240509/feed/ 0 New Kind of Magnetism Spotted in an Engineered Material https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-kind-of-magnetism-spotted-in-an-engineered-material-20240110/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-kind-of-magnetism-spotted-in-an-engineered-material-20240110/#respond Wed, 10 Jan 2024 15:33:49 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=133972 The post New Kind of Magnetism Spotted in an Engineered Material first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> All the magnets you have ever interacted with, such as the tchotchkes stuck to your refrigerator door, are magnetic for the same reason. But what if there were another, stranger way to make a material magnetic? In 1966, the Japanese physicist Yosuke Nagaoka conceived of a type of magnetism produced by a seemingly unnatural dance of electrons within a hypothetical material. Now...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-kind-of-magnetism-spotted-in-an-engineered-material-20240110/feed/ 0 Room-Temperature Superconductor Discovery Meets With Resistance https://www.quantamagazine.org/room-temperature-superconductor-discovery-meets-with-resistance-20230308/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/room-temperature-superconductor-discovery-meets-with-resistance-20230308/#respond Wed, 08 Mar 2023 16:00:37 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=123663 Nature reports the discovery of a superconductor that operates at room temperatures and near-room pressures. The claim has divided the research community.

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]]> Editor’s note, September 28, 2023: Eight of the paper’s 11 co-authors have asked Nature to retract the superconductivity paper, citing alleged data manipulation. The request, which was first reported in the Wall Street Journal, follows revelations that the paper’s plot of electrical resistivity does not match the description in the paper. Editor’s note, November 7, 2023: Nature has retracted the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/room-temperature-superconductor-discovery-meets-with-resistance-20230308/feed/ 0 High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last https://www.quantamagazine.org/high-temperature-superconductivity-understood-at-last-20220921/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/high-temperature-superconductivity-understood-at-last-20220921/#respond Wed, 21 Sep 2022 14:06:52 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=118980 The post High-Temperature Superconductivity Understood at Last first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> For decades, a family of crystals has stumped physicists with its baffling ability to superconduct — that is, carry an electric current without any resistance — at far warmer temperatures than other materials. Now, an experiment years in the making has directly visualized superconductivity on the atomic scale in one of these crystals, finally revealing the cause of the phenomenon to nearly...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/high-temperature-superconductivity-understood-at-last-20220921/feed/ 0 Physics Duo Finds Magic in Two Dimensions https://www.quantamagazine.org/physics-duo-finds-magic-in-two-dimensions-20220816/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/physics-duo-finds-magic-in-two-dimensions-20220816/#respond Tue, 16 Aug 2022 15:45:49 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=117870 The post Physics Duo Finds Magic in Two Dimensions first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Molybdenite, even to the trained eye, looks almost identical to graphite — a lustrous, silvery crystal. It acts similarly too, sloughing off flakes in a way that would make for a good pencil filling. But to an electron, the two grids of atoms form different worlds. The distinction first entered the scientific record 244 years ago. Carl Scheele, a Swedish chemist renowned for his discovery of...

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