Researched
Superconductivity
Kamerlingh Onnes finds in 1911 that mercury at about 4 K conducts current without any resistance.
Open in the interactive tree →After Onnes liquefied helium in 1908, he cooled mercury and saw its resistance vanish at about 4.2 K. Meissner and Ochsenfeld showed in 1933 that superconductors also expel magnetic fields, and the BCS theory (1957) explained conventional superconductivity through electron pairs (Cooper pairs). Superconducting magnets run MRI scanners and the 27-km LHC.
Prerequisites
- Thermodynamics1824
- Electromagnetism1831-1865
Unlocks
- Superconducting Magnets1961
- CT and MRI scanning1971
- High-Temperature Superconductors1986
- Higgs Boson Discovered2012
- First Quantum Processors2019
- Fusion: Ignition & Records2022–2026
- Muon g-2: Final Result2025
- Quantum Tunneling in a Circuit2025
- Net-Electricity Fusion Plantopen
- Room-Temperature Superconductoropen