Communications of the ACM

For decades, physicists have dreamed of discovering a material that could effortlessly convey electricity at everyday temperatures, a feat that would save gargantuan amounts of energy and revolutionize modern technology.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers announced that they have done just that. They have made a superconductor that works at 58 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a cool autumn day.

This material is still far from practical, produced in only minute quantities and under immense pressures usually found closer to the Earth's core. But the scientists hope that with further experimentation they can devise a variation of their material that remains a superconductor even after that pressure is removed.

"Ultimately, we want to bring the pressure to almost ambient pressure, to actually have an actual application," said Ranga P. Dias, a professor of physics and mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester and the senior author of the Nature paper.