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Science News reports on a new and unlikely discovery about bismuth.

At a frigid temperature 5 ten-thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, bismuth becomes a superconductor — a material that conducts electricity without resistance — physicists from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, report online December 1 in Science.

Bismuth, a semimetallic element, conducts electricity less efficiently than an ordinary metal. It is unlike most other known superconductors in that it has very few mobile electrons. Consequently, the prevailing theory of superconductivity doesn't apply.

The result is "quite important," says theoretical physicist Marvin Cohen of the University of California, Berkeley. New ideas — either a different theory or a tweak to the standard one — are needed to explain bismuth's superconductivity. "It might lead us to a better theory of superconductivity with more details," Cohen says.

An improved theoretical understanding might lead scientists to other superconductors, potentially ones that work at more practical temperatures, says Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, a coauthor of the paper. "It opens a new path for discovering new superconducting materials."

Evidence for bulk superconductivity in pure bismuth single crystals at ambient pressure [DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf8227]

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