New Era or False Start?
The history of electricity is punctuated with many major moments. Michael Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic induction, James Clerk Maxwell’s famous equations, Nikola Tesla’s creation of an A/C induction motor, and Bell Labs’ invention of the transistor have all earned a top spot—and the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor would surely be their equal.
“Even though the mechanism may not be known and even though people are still trying to understand high-temperature superconductors, there’s no physics reason why we can’t have a room-temperature superconductor,” Mason says. “The application possibilities would broaden tremendously if we had [one].”