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Article: Flexible friends: high-temperature superconductivity.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- January 30, 1993
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THEY have had a Mephistophelian quality ever since they were discovered. Superconductors promised magic--the passage of electricity without resistance--but their demands were great. The best were made from rare metals, and all needed temperatures colder than the ice reserved for traitors at the centre of Dante's inferno - more than 250C below freezing. To keep things that cold takes liquid helium, which is expensive.
Scientists were willing to make the bargain; they put up with the difficulties in order to study the weirdness of super-conductivity. Engineers, though, held out for something more. They were unwilling to dabble in such things without the promise of a ...