magnesium diboride

The awesome limits of superconductors

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On June 24, a press release from CERN said that scientists and engineers working on upgrading the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) had “built and operated … the most powerful electrical transmission line … to date”. The transmission line consisted of four cables – two capable of transporting 20 kA of current and two, 7 kA. … Read more

A stinky superconductor

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Levitation of a magnet atop a superconductor. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The next time you smell a whiff of rot in your morning’s eggs, you might not want to throw them away. Instead, you might do better to realise what you’re smelling could be a superconductor (under the right conditions) that’s, incidentally, riled up the scientific community. The source of excitement is a paper published in … Read more