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romanr writes:
"Copper oxides, also known as cuprates, are the most promising materials for superconductivity. Today, cuprates can be superconductive at temperatures as high as -150 °C. But for many years scientists wondered why they lose superconductivity when concentration of electrons drops below certain level. Most scientist thought that the cuprates gradually became insulators.
Scientists from Université de Sherbrooke discovered that the loss of superconductivity is because of a sudden appearance of a distinct electronic phase in the material that enters into competition with the superconductivity and weakens it. It means, that higher temperature superconductors will be possible if we can get rid of the competing phase. This new approach opens a way to get an ambient temperature superconductivity."
(Score: 5, Informative) by KibiByte on Tuesday February 18 2014, @12:25AM
What is happening here is a concept many of us would be familiar with in designing power supplies - ripple.
Essentially, what's going on is as power goes through the conductor, an out of phase ripple forms. This ripple interferes with the flow of electrons, and thus makes superconductivity impossible at higher temperatures (among other small things we haven't tested, yet.)
But this gives us confirmation that one of two competing theories was the right one to pursue. 5-sigma. Not 6, but this is statistically more than enough.
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