Superconductivity, first discovered in 1911, is the loss of all electrical resistance by certain materials when cooled to very low temperature. In 1986, and more recently in 2007, two new high-temperature superconductors were discovered which superconduct at much more easily obtainable temperatures. Each of these discoveries motivated an unprecedented worldwide flurry of research. Not only do the high-temperature superconductors represent fascinating new classes of solid state matter which break certain fundamental symmetries of nature, but applications such as impacting the power grid by significantly reducing power loss are extremely promising.
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