For more than a century, superconductors have represented one of science’s most tantalizing frontiers: materials capable of conducting electricity with zero resistance. They are the backbone of MRI machines, particle accelerators, and the dream of next-generation quantum devices. But until now, the process of making them has been slow, rigid, and rooted in decades-old methods. That just changed. Cornell researchers have unveiled a one-step 3D-printing process that doesn’t just simplify how superconductors are made—it unlocks unprecedented performance, shattering records with magnetic field strengths of 40 to 50 Tesla. To put that in perspective, the magnets used at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider peak around 8 Tesla. Cornell’s breakthrough isn’t just incremental; it’s transformative.
Continue reading… “3D-Printed Superconductors Smash Barriers and Redefine the Future of Power”Scientists create the world’s first room temperature superconductor
Superconducting materials typically require extremely cool temperatures to operate, which is demonstrated in this photo. But a new discovery could change that
Since its discovery more than a century ago, superconductivity has come to play a powerful role in many modern day technologies, such as maglev trains and MRI scans, but its utility has been limited by the need for extremely cool operating temperatures. Scientists are now claiming a big breakthrough in this area, creating what they say is the first material capable of superconductivity at room temperature.
The work was led by Ranga Dias at the University of Rochester, and aims to overcome one of the major roadblocks in expanding the uses of superconductive materials. These materials exhibit no electrical resistance and expel a magnetic field, but because they typically only function at temperatures below -140 °C (-220 °F), they require expensive equipment to maintain.
“Because of the limits of low temperature, materials with such extraordinary properties have not quite transformed the world in the way that many might have imagined,” says Dias. “However, our discovery will break down these barriers and open the door to many potential applications.”
Continue reading… “Scientists create the world’s first room temperature superconductor”
How graphene is going to transform the way we get power
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 2002, when Dr. Bor Jang, a little-known researcher in Akron, Ohio, filed his patent for graphene, few people had a clue as to how revolutionary it would be. Certainly not the people at the Nobel Foundation who forgot to check the patent registry and instead awarded the Nobel Prize for graphene to scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov from the University of Manchester.
As the poster child for the emerging new super materials industry, graphene is a form of ultra thin carbon just one atom thick. If you can imagine something a million times thinner than a single sheet of paper, you get the picture.
Continue reading… “How graphene is going to transform the way we get power”
Quantum levitation in action (video)
Quantum levitation
Researchers at the Tel Aviv University have created a track around which a superconductor can float, thanks to the phenomenon of “quantum levitation“. Suspending a superconducting disc above or below a set of permanent magnets – the magnetic field is locked inside the superconductor ; a phenomenon called ‘Quantum Trapping’.
Continue reading… “Quantum levitation in action (video)”
