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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: 3, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Tuesday February 18 2014, @01:38AM
Not quite though. The moon is slowing us down through the tides, every little thing that hits the electromagnetic field around the earth is introducing a new variable. Although it might seem simplistic to say that there is no interaction with the earth rotating in the "void of space" it's just not quite that way. Even meteors and meteoric dust make up TONS of the stuff each and every single day (estimates vary from merely a few tons to a few hundred tons - but either way it is TONS).
Also, think about all the energy required to power our own electromagnetic field. Sloshing all that iron about like a giant dynamo, having the field encounter constant barrage from solar wind, particles and the like. It takes a toll - just look at poor Mars. Had it, lost it. Planets aren't floating in a perfect void.