History of Superconductivity

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In 1911 a Dutch physicist call Heike Onnes was investigating the electrical resistance of metals at very low temperatures. He cooled down Mercury down to about 4.2K (or -269°C) and discovered that the resistance appeared to disappear. This was an extremely surprising result, a bit like friction suddenly falling to zero. He called this effect superconductivity as the mercury showed perfect conductivity. He later discovered that lead superconducts at 7K (-266.2°C) and since another 20 elements have been found to superconduct if you cool them far enough. more...