If you hadn’t heard about superconductors before 2023, odds are you know what they are now. Researchers raised eyebrows early in the year with claims of operational room-temperature superconductors, though none has been substantiated, and one paper from researchers at the University of Rochester was retracted by the journal Nature at the authors’ request in November.
But the hunt for a superconductor – that is, a material that can conduct electricity without resistance – that can operate at room temperature is nothing new.
Right now, superconductors can operate only at very cold temperatures. So, finding one that could work at room temperature without needing to be kept in a cold chamber could revolutionize everything from power grids and medical equipment to quantum computing. But physicists first have to figure out how to make them work.
