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Physicists Shed Light On Key Superconductivity Riddle

physorg.com — MIT physicists believe they have identified a mysterious state of matter that has been linked to the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity.The researchers are exploring materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at temperatures around 30 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero. Such materials could have limitless applications..

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optimusprime01 133 days ago, made popular 132 days ago

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43 Comments
Who Dugg It?

Shogi, on 07/22/2008, -1/+8Damn, MIT is kickin ass this year.
- RealmDown, on 07/22/2008, -0/+8Actually, they pretty much kick ass every year. :)
  - disrupter, on 07/22/2008, -2/+9too bad they can't get any ass
  - tHeSiD, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1haha! touche!
  - mrjah, on 07/22/2008, -0/+3Well, you know what they say about getting ass at MIT...
    
    The odds are good, but the goods are odd.
- boester, on 07/22/2008, -2/+3More like digg is promoting MIT. More important discoveries happen in other universities but they are never advertised as much as this.
- mrjah, on 07/22/2008, -0/+2boester, are you putting MIT in one bucket and "other universities" in the other bucket, and then comparing importance across the two buckets?
  
  "Other NBA players" scored more points in the finals than Michael Jordan, so I guess he's just well known because he got promoted more.
  - boester, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1There is only 1 bucket, and it is the digg bucket. In this bucket, the amount of MIT articles compared all other universities is probably 10:1, despite the fact that there are more significant discoveries made in other universities.
goldsaturn, on 07/22/2008, -0/+38at temperatures around 30 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.
That's a little redundant, it's like saying the floor on the ground.
- fas2, on 07/22/2008, -0/+7Good catch
- Unskillful, on 07/22/2008, -1/+2I logged in just to vote up this comment.
- dezmo, on 07/22/2008, -4/+1as far as high temperature superconductors are concerned it's not redundant at all. remember, the temp of liquid nitrogen is about 90 K, so far the highest critical-temp of a superconductor is about 150 K
  - elrac, on 07/22/2008, -0/+5No, it is redundant because when you say "30 degrees Kelvin" you have already said "30 degrees above absolute zero" since zero kelvin IS absolute zero.
  - mrjah, on 07/22/2008, -0/+4"30 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero" is phrased badly for two reasons.
    
    1) As pointed out above, any nonzero Kelvin temperature is above absolute zero.
    
    2) There is no such thing as "degrees Kelvin." It's just "Kelvin." On the Kelvin scale, the units aren't called degrees.
  - dezmo, on 07/22/2008, -7/+1um, i don't care, that's stupid
- davewelsh79, on 07/22/2008, -0/+4"30 degrees kelvin (30 °K)" is incorrect too. It's just "30 kelvin (30 K)"
- diggydougie, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1Kinda like hot water heater. Why heat hot water?
  - Atomic05, on 07/22/2008, -0/+6To keep it from becoming cold.
    
    Hey, you asked.
Elliuotatar, on 07/22/2008, -0/+5Uh... what's a charge density wave?
- TimmyA, on 07/22/2008, -0/+6Imagine a whole load of objects moving about, a good example is cars along a road. In some places there are more cars (more traffic and so higher number density) than in others (less traffic and so lower number density). You can now imagine the situation as a number density wave, moving (or perhaps not moving) along the street.
  
  Replace objects with charge, and instead of number, you would have a charge density wave. You can then imagine it in more than 1 dimension, if you wish.
  - DestroyFascism, on 07/23/2008, -0/+2Or better yet the cars begin to stop looking like cars and start to look more like stretched water waves that are singular but aligned in one direction. Instead of the cars being something to hop over and around, an electron could simply roll over the lot of them.
- robbiemuffin, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1I'm rusty on it but I think it is like ripples in a pond ... water on the surface of the pond still circulates even when there is no disturbance, it just moves uniformly (and slower, but that's unessential). ... but throw a stone in and there is order and structure visible in the movement of the water.
fas2, on 07/22/2008, -0/+8Where are the physicist-diggers? Where?
- Dinomight, on 07/22/2008, -0/+3You got one here. (I doubt i'm the only one)
- CadMasterAdam, on 07/22/2008, -0/+2damn i thought i was alone
BobScratchit, on 07/22/2008, -8/+2The most important question that was not asked in this study; "Can we have sex with this material?"
migshark, on 07/22/2008, -1/+2Limitless applications isn't an exaggeration. It would save money from the power plant onward, and perhaps even in the supplying of the plant. I wonder if 'black bodies' had anything to do with it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body%29%29
- Justice101, on 07/22/2008, -1/+1FTA
  
  charge density waves
  
  High temp. superconductor is not even close to room temp. superconductor. It's more like around -240d oC. Even though I can dream...
  - cnosal, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1I think the 30K refers to standard superconductors, where high temp superconductors will ideally be room temperature so we don't have to cool them. Otherwise, why call it 'high temperature'?
  - tarjan, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1no, 30K is high temperature. It just indicates that 30K is much higher than previously known super conductors (2-3K if I recall correctly).
canUdi9it, on 07/22/2008, -0/+17Leonard Bernstein was a super conductor, even at room temperature.
- OliveStreet, on 07/22/2008, -0/+0So was Fred. He was always super-friendly when he took my ticket on the 6:37 Southshore line.
thespanielator, on 07/22/2008, -3/+1http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/FSM_ ...

praise be to science.
- TxAggie08, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1OH MY SCIENCE! I can't believe you just said that.
crazygamer67688, on 07/22/2008, -5/+8Chuck Norris can super conduct at ANY temperature
yanwg, on 07/22/2008, -0/+3Dugg because they used the word "pseudogap" in a sentence not about an IPhone.
diggydougie, on 07/22/2008, -5/+3Call me when you reach ROOM temperature. None of this will be practical in the real world if it requires expensive cooling just to operate.
lineman60, on 07/22/2008, -2/+2That's neat but 30 kelvin = -405.67 degrees Fahrenheit that's a whee bit cold for me. Like every one else wake me when they get it above 0 C.
pixmaker2, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1ummm, what does all that stuff mean. ?
- DestroyFascism, on 07/23/2008, -0/+1A 1 billion + AMD duel core with 200 tb of ram running at a speed 140 to the power of 10 x 24 all in a chip the size of a pea.
  
  Games~! OMG!!! Cinematic....
wishninja, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1so basically they eliminated an idea they had that was wrong and now they think after 3 decades now they are on the right track. I hope they get it figured out but nothing to jump up and down about.
FreeTalkLIve, on 07/22/2008, -0/+1Checker boards are super conductive!

That means chicken wire is super conductive.

That means screen doors are super conductive.

My checkered shirt is super conductive.
kandy4me, on 07/23/2008, -0/+1They already have superconductors that can operate at 195K... http://superconductors.org/195K.htm . 20 years too late?
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Physicists Shed Light On Key Superconductivity Riddle

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