A New Family of High-Temperature Superconductors

sciencehabit writes to let us know that physicists are hailing the discovery of a new type of superconductor as a "major advance." The new materials could solve the biggest mystery in condensed matter physics — i.e., how and why cuprate superconductors work — as well as paving the way for practical magnetic levitation and lossless transmission of energy. "God only knows where it will go," says one Nobel Laureate. After the discovery of superconductivity in an iron-and-arsenic compound at 26 kelvin, several Chinese research groups quickly found related materials that are superconducting up to 55K. (Cuprates go as high as 138K; liquid nitrogen boils at 77K.)

Comments

Re:Is this really news?

[Andy Dodd]

It is news not because of any new temperature records, but because of the fact that these are the first superconductors outside of the cuprate family to exhibit high critical temperatures.

This is an entirely new family from the cuprates. The cuprates started much lower too. Also, even if this family never compares to the cuprates in performance, the behavior of this new family could shed light on the (relatively unknown) mechanisms of cuprate superconductivity, allowing for that family to be developed further.

Re:US science is dying?

[What Would NPH Do]

I am more interested as to why American scientists weren't the first in on this, Because despite the jingoist tune, the US hasn't been the forefront of technology and science for quite some time. When you have creationists trying to ruin science education all across the country it's not that surprising.

and why such cutting-edge research is being done in China (a poor third-world country). China is poor? Since when? They're raking in the dough which is why they also hold 1/3 of the US national debt. Besides, countries in Southeast Asia have been pumping out cutting edge research for years now. If you were to shed the chauvinism for a few hours you might have noticed this already.