When cooled to low enough temperatures, certain materials will superconduct: the electrical resistance inside them will drop to zero. When exposed to a strong magnetic field, some superconductors will exhibit levitation effects, as flux pinning and flux expulsion can overcome the force of gravity for even weakly magnetic materials. (PETER NUSSBAUMER / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

How Close Are We To The Holy Grail Of Room-Temperature Superconductors?

The dream of zero resistance is closer than you may think.

One of the biggest physical problems in modern society is resistance. Not political or social resistance, mind you, but electrical resistance: the fact that you cannot send an electrical current through a wire without some of that energy getting lost, being dissipated into heat. Electrical currents are just electric charges that move over time, and are harnessed by humans to move through current-carrying wires. Yet even the best, most effective conductors — copper, silver, gold, and aluminum — all have some resistance to current passing through them. No matter how wide, shielded, or unoxidized these conductors are, they’re never 100% efficient at transporting electrical energy.

Unless, that is, you can make your current-carrying wire go from a normal conductor to a superconductor. Unlike normal conductors, where the resistance gradually lowers when you cool them down, a superconductor has its resistance plummet to zero below a certain critical threshold. Without any resistance, superconductors can transmit electrical energy in a lossless fashion, leading to the holy grail of energy efficiency. Recent developments have brought about the highest-temperature superconductor ever discovered, but we probably…