superconductivity

Definition

Total or almost total lack of resistance to the flow of electric current. Some metals and their compounds lose their resistance uniformly as their temperature drops and, within a few degrees of the absolute temperature (-273.15°C or -459.67°F), it suddenly disappears and the current flows indefinitely. In recent times researchers have achieved similar results at temperatures as high as -179°C (-405°F). The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.