Why Superconductors Will (Eventually) Change the World
The high-stakes quest driving scientists to lies, fraud and scandal
For a few weeks in the summer of 2023, solid-state physics was one of the hottest trending topics on the internet (yes, really!). Social media was flooded with videos of what looked like a small piece of metal levitating above a magnet. Commentators proclaimed that this magical-looking phenomenon was about to change the world in ways we could barely imagine.
This floating metal was said to represent a scientific breakthrough more than a century in the making. The “holy grail” of physics had been found: a room-temperature superconductor.
Or had it?
Within weeks, other scientists had replicated LK-99 — the mysterious new compound — and tested the bold claims made by researchers at Korea University. They soon reached a clear consensus: the search for a room-temperature superconductor continues. LK-99 is not it.
For those who follow the field closely, it felt like déjà vu. Back in October 2020, the prestigious science journal Nature published a series of papers that sent the world of physics into a frenzy. A star academic at the University of Rochester had reportedly cracked the room-temperature superconductor conundrum. Ranga Dias was being feted by venture capitalists who wanted to get in on the ground floor and invest in this revolutionary new material. A Nobel Prize was already being talked about.
And then, the claims fell apart – spectacularly. The Nature papers were retracted. Dias was found to have committed data fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. He left his post at Rochester amid scandalous accusations of misconduct.
Dias’ downfall echoed yet another scandal. In the early 2000s, Bell Labs’ star physicist Jan Hendrik Schön attracted global attention with the “discovery” of a superconducting plastic and a series of other revolutionary breakthroughs. These, too, were based on made-up findings and dodgy data. Schön was subsequently fired and had his PhD revoked.
These hoaxes inspired this recent iluli video on scientific fraud, where we tackled the question: why would people working in a field built on the pursuit of truth descend into dishonesty?
But superconductivity is a fascinating phenomenon in its own right. So in this newsletter, we’re picking up the other side of the story – the incredible history and real science behind this “magic” matter.
What is a superconductor? Why is the search for one that works at room temperature such a big deal? And how close are we, really?
Resistance is futile
Sometimes incredible discoveries come from nowhere.
In 1911, Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes was working in his cryogenic lab, studying how mercury behaved at ultra-low temperatures. He was trying to understand how different gases could be liquified – a pursuit that had already earned him fame as the first scientist to turn helium into a liquid.
When he cooled a mercury wire to close to the coldest temperature possible, something remarkable and completely unexpected happened. The wire’s electrical resistance vanished.
At 4 Kelvin (a bone-chilling -269°C), mercury entered a new state that defied the traditional classifications of liquid, gas or solid. It became a superconductor.
So what does that mean?
Most materials are either conductors or insulators. Insulators stop the flow of electricity. Conductors – like copper, gold and tin – allow an electric current to flow through them. But even good conductors aren’t perfect: some of the charge gets lost to resistance.
As superconductor expert Professor Stephen Blundell colourfully describes it in his book on the subject:
“Think of the carriers of electrical charge in a metal, the electrons, as a swarm of angry bees, each one zipping around in some apparently random direction. Driving a current is like trying to gently waft the swarm in a particular direction by subjecting them to a breeze, so that even though each bee is rushing back and forth at great speed, the swarm as a whole drifts along with the breeze. However, the bees keep bumping into things, slamming into tree branches and hedges, and even though each emerges unscathed, these collisions dissipate energy and serve to heat up, ever so slightly, the objects with which the bees collide.”
This is why wires get hot – an effect known as Joule heating. Sometimes this can be useful (like in a toaster) but most of the time it’s a waste of energy. The further electricity travels, the more of it gets lost. And the heat buildup can pose a safety hazard.
Kamerlingh Onnes' great discovery was that when certain materials get cold enough, their structure changes, and the resistance issue disappears completely. As Blundell explains:
“In superconductors, the Joule heating is entirely absent. It is as if the friction has been turned off and the crowd of angry bees waft gently through the garden without bumping into anything.”
Tackling resistance might only sound like a small improvement, but the implications are enormous. It has the potential to unleash a new era in which electricity can be carried over large distances with perfect efficiency, and energy-hungry technology no longer needs vast cooling systems to function.
That’s the world-changing potential promised by one of a superconductor’s extraordinary properties – zero resistance.
But this is not their only superpower.
Magic magnets
Two decades after Kamerlingh Onnes’ unexpected discovery, another strange phenomenon emerged – this time in Germany.
Physicists Walther Meissner and Robert Ochsenfeld noticed that as a material entered its superconducting state, it completely expelled its internal magnetic fields. This phenomenon, now known as the Meissner Effect, had the appearance of magic. A superconductor placed on top of a magnet would levitate, as if hovering on an invisible cushion.
This magnetic marvel is just as transformative as a superconductor’s resistance-free electrical properties.
Take MRI scanners. A large coil made of superconducting wire runs through the tunnel of these machines, generating a magnetic field tens of thousands of times stronger than Earth’s. The sheer power and stability of this magnetic field make it possible to take clear, detailed scans of our internal organs.
At the Large Hadron Collider, superconductors’ ability to carry huge electrical currents without resistance and produce intense magnetic fields makes them crucial to the world’s biggest science experiment. The collider is accelerating particles close to the speed of light to help us answer some of the most fundamental questions about the workings of the universe.
They’re at the heart of nuclear fusion experiments, which may one day provide us with an infinite source of clean energy. Powerful superconducting magnets are used to suspend plasma in mid-air while it is scorched to temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun.
And then there’s transport. Maglev trains float above their tracks using superconducting magnets, eliminating friction and allowing for record-breaking speeds. A Japanese prototype hit 375mph – and a full maglev line is now in the works, set to halve journey times on routes already served by superfast bullet trains.
Why is room temperature a big deal?
Ever since Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in mercury at temperatures close to absolute zero, the race has been on to find a material that will do the same under more practical conditions.
Calling it a “race” may, however, be too generous. Progress has not exactly been quick.
In the 75 years following Kamerlingh Onnes’ breakthrough, superconductivity was only observed below -250˚C. Then, in the 1980s, experiments with metal alloys pushed that threshold more than 60 degrees higher, opening the door to so-called “high-temperature” superconductors.
Today, we have materials that will superconduct at just below -100˚C under normal atmospheric conditions. This is progress enough that we can utilise their superpowers in expensive specialist equipment, but not enough to realise the dream of cheap and convenient superconductivity.
A superconductor that works at room temperature would revolutionise virtually every technology that runs on electricity, which is… pretty much all of them.
Here are four ways they could change the world:
Slashing global energy waste. An estimated 8 to 15 % of all electricity generated for the grid is lost to resistance before it ever reaches our homes or offices. In the US alone, as engineering physicist Andrew Cote notes, that’s equivalent to the output of dozens of nuclear power plants wasted. Transmission lines, transformers and generators upgraded with superconductors could deliver electricity with perfect efficiency – dramatically reducing the amount we need to produce and cutting emissions in the process.
Cheaper, more accessible medical tools. A big portion of the cost of MRI scanners is the 500 gallons of liquid helium needed to cool superconducting magnets to an ultra-low temperature. Removing this requirement would be a game changer, transforming an expensive, specialist piece of kit into a relatively cheap device available to anyone who needs it. (Especially useful when helium is becoming increasingly scarce.)
A green, high-speed transport revolution. Superconducting batteries could make lightweight, frictionless electric engines a reality for planes – opening the door to a new era of green air travel. NASA and Airbus are already testing electric aircraft, but one of the biggest hurdles is weight. Unlike cars, planes can’t afford to be lugging heavy batteries. That’s where a room-temperature superconductor can present the ultimate breakthrough – offering ultra-efficient, high-capacity energy storage that might finally make zero-emission commercial flights possible.
The next computing breakthrough. Data centres are now said to generate the same greenhouse gas emissions as the entire aviation industry. This is largely due to the immense cooling required to keep servers and chips from overheating. Superconductors could dramatically cut this carbon footprint – and unlock the next giant leap forward in computing.
After decades of exponential growth in processing power, we’re hitting the physical limit of how many transistors can be packed onto a piece of silicon (a challenge we looked at in a previous newsletter). Today’s microchips must be designed flat and thin, often with bulky heat sinks, to stay cool enough to function. As Andrew Cote explains:
“Computer chips designed with superconducting materials have the potential to be around 300 times as energy efficient and 10 times as fast as our current silicon-based microelectronics. Eliminating waste heat would enable more compact designs, longer battery lives and a lower tax on our electrical grid to power the digital economy.”
And then there’s quantum computing. Google, IBM and Intel are all racing to develop superconducting quantum computers. A room-temperature superconducting breakthrough would eliminate the need for complex and expensive cryogenic cooling systems. It might be the key ingredient that unleashes powerful, practical quantum computers that can solve problems a million times faster than traditional computers.
So… how close are we?
Developments in superconductivity tend to follow a recurring pattern. As physicist Stephen Blundell notes:
“An unexpected breakthrough emerges from left field and is followed by frantic research activity. This is accompanied by feverish reporting in the scientific and popular press heralding the imminent approach of new sources of energy, new methods of transport, and other as-yet-undreamt-of opportunities for technological advance which have a bit of a sci-fi feel to them. Subsequently, the research path proves to be more uphill and rockier than first anticipated. After the initial advances have given way to much slower progress, a period of disillusionment sets in and the research grants die away. Then, after several years, the next breakthrough occurs and the cycle begins again.”
This was written more than a decade before the recent LK-99 and Ranga Dias controversies, but it could just as easily be describing them. A flurry of excitement debunked and we’re back to square one. Or are we?
Writing in New Scientist, journalist Jon Cartwright says the outlook is now much more positive:
“The fuss over those studies obscures a more subtle and interesting truth: broader research in pursuit of a practical superconductor is racing forwards and there is a sense that, finally, the search is turning a corner. In the past few years, there have been more experimental breakthroughs than you can shake a stick at, while theorists are honing a wealth of methods to predict the composition of new superconducting materials from scratch.”
Recent breakthroughs have shown enough to change the mind of University of Oxford physicist Professor J. C. Séamus Davis. “Folks my age can remember when it was absolutely certain: there will never be a room-temperature superconductor,” he said. “Only now we’re realising how wrong we were.”
This growing optimism is matched by a rising sense of urgency. This miracle material could slow down climate change and turbocharge global economies. It could unlock breakthroughs with the power to reshape our future and save the world.
Perhaps these sky-high stakes – not to mention a guaranteed Nobel Prize – have added extra incentive for some scientists to make inflated claims and engage in some less than “super” conduct.
But the more encouraging fact is that, with research “becoming more competitive than ever,” a world-changing superconductivity breakthrough may finally be within reach.
Recommended links and further reading
In Our Time: Superconductivity (BBC Radio 4)
Room-temperature superconductors could revolutionize electronics – an electrical engineer explains the materials’ potential (The Conversation)
Why a floating speck of metal sent scientists’ hearts racing (The New York Times)
How would room-temperature superconductors change science? (Nature - subscription required)
Superconductivity: A Very Short Introduction – book by Stephen Blundell
In the news
Topical updates on subjects covered in previous iluli videos:
A brain microbiome? We’re only just getting started understanding the gut microbiome – the trillions of bacteria which play a key role in our metabolism, mood and immune system. Might we also have a microbiome in our brains? The jury is still out, but the recent discovery of a microbiome in fish brains seems to make it more probable that we have one too. Read more about it in Quanta Magazine.
Data gaps. We looked at the data gap in medicine and other areas of research in this video a little while back. Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women, has written in The Guardian about encouraging progress being made to address the gender imbalance in clinical trials.
Carbon capture setback. Less positive news on the emerging technology of carbon capture, which was the subject of an iluli video in 2023. Climeworks – one of the leading players in the field – has recently announced cutbacks due to “economic uncertainty and ‘reduced momentum’ for climate tech.”