- materials that have zero electrical resistance - they don't impede electricity at all - historically, rings of superconductors have had currents flowing in them for decades, with no energy source - unfortunately, all current (2024) known superconductors can only achieve the zero resistance property at very low temperatures - goal is to find a "room temperature superconductor" which would revolutionize electricity - currently, lots of energy is wasted by conducting electricity through resistive wires - easiest way to cool a wire is to place it in a cold liquid - the original superconductors were cooled by liquid helium immersion - helium is finite resource, comes from oil and natural gas wells - Sun is 10% helium but that's hard to get, once Earth dries up we're out - liquid nitrogen is currently another alternative for the later discovered higher temperature (but still low) superconductors - but these higher temperature superconductors are all pretty brittle, hard to manufacture useful wires from them ![[CleanShot 2024-06-20 at [email protected]|350]] - no jiggling from atoms to prevent electricity flow ![[CleanShot 2024-06-20 at [email protected]|350]]