Levitation class
Are we standing on the verge of discovering the first material with room temperature superconductivity ability? At low temperatures, superconductivity already laid the basis for many modern technologies, such as MRI medical scanners and Maglev trains. Its extension towards room temperature would be a real boon for the energy transition. Talks about a breakthrough have dominated the scientific news this summer, until the South Korean researchers finally retracted their claim [1,2,3]. Still, it might not be long until someone else succeeds.
In view of the significance of its future applications, Prof. Benoit Merle and M.Sc. Mona Stoll have taken steps to make the students at Kassel University acquainted with superconductivity. The video shows the levitation of a liquid nitrogen cooled cuprate pellet, which was performed this week on stage during the Materials Engineering 1 class (“Werkstofftechnik 1”).
Contact: Prof. Benoit Merle www.uni-kassel.de/go/mbm
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[2] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/supraleiter-raumtemperatur-fake-1.6300450