60秒科学:Forcing Electrons into Superconducting Line

（单词翻译）

Forcing Electrons into Superconducting Line
In a study in the journal Nature researchers created a "pseudo gap," in which electrons in superconducting materials line up just before flowing resistance-free. Sonya Buyting reports

Imagine a world with levitating¹ cars, MRIs the size of laptops, and wide scale efficient energy distribution. These might not be pipe dreams if scientists can capitalize on a finding in the journal Nature.

Superconductors carry electricity with no loss to resistance. They are to regular conductors what a laser beam is to a light bulb. The problem is they have to be cooled to at least –100 degrees Celsius² to work. Then the electrons spontaneously start moving in one direction and forming pairs. And now, scientists have caught a glimpse of a mysterious phase they call the “pseudo-gap” where the electrons line up just before they form pairs and start superconducting.

Louis Taillefer from the University of Sherbrooke said they used a magnetic field to align³ the electron flow: “The effect was very big. It was surprisingly big.”

If scientists can take advantage of this effect, room temperature superconductors could be a step closer. “If we do find or if we do arrive at a material that can sustain superconductivity at room temperature we will have a huge technological⁴ revolution, similar on a scale to the transistor⁵.”