 |
| Levitation of a superconducting sheet |
In 1986, a
team from the IBM research center in Zurich discovered high-temperature
superconductivity. Until then, this phenomenon, well known since
it was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911, only occurred at
temperatures close to absolute zero. Thanks to the use of ceramic materials made
with copper and rare earths, the critical temperature rose first to 35K, and
soon after to 92K (Kelvin, or degrees above absolute zero). As a comparison,
take into account that the fusion of ice into water takes place at about 273K.
Immediately
the media announced this discovery as the door to a new technological
revolution. Among the revolutionary applications announced were nuclear fusion,
high-speed trains and ships that would move in levitation, the lossless transmission
of electrical energy over long distances, supercomputers, and many more. The “fever”
of the media grew even more when Bednorz and Müller, members of the team that
made the discovery, were awarded the Nobel Prize in just one year, in 1987.
