Robert F. ServiceFulfilling a decades-old quest, this week researchers report creating the first superconductor that does not have to be cooled for its electrical resistance to vanish.
There’s a catch: The new room temperature superconductor only works at a pressure equivalent to about three-quarters of that at the center of Earth.
But if researchers can stabilize the material at ambient pressure, dreamed-of applications of superconductivity could be within reach, such as low-loss power lines and ultrapowerful superconducting magnets that don’t need refrigeration, for MRI machines and maglev trains. “This is a landmark,” says Chris Pickard, a physicist at the University of Cambridge.