Out of cold storage [Electronics Future]

Superconductivity could open up a new generation of low-loss power cables, superpowerful magnets and a whole new class of high-speed electronic circuits. The promise has been there since Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first described the phenomenon in 1911. But progress is not quick, particularly in materials that can superconduct at temperatures above even those found in the deep Antarctic winter.