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Started by Arash Mohammadi (@arash_m) ·

the 'Woodstock of Physics' was a 1987 superconductor session that ran past 3am

The American Physical Society added a last-minute evening session on the new ceramic superconductors and people packed the hall and overflowed into the corridors. Talks were limited to about five minutes each.

6 sources · 43 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
Why was everyone so excited about superconductors in 1987?
Ended at
Liquid nitrogen

The Trail

  1. “woodstock of physics 1987 superconductivity” (google.com)
  2. Woodstock of physics (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. High-temperature superconductivity (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Yttrium barium copper oxide (en.wikipedia.org)

    first superconductor above liquid nitrogen temperature, which is why it was a big deal

  5. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (en.wikipedia.org)

    found superconductivity in mercury in 1911, a few degrees above absolute zero

  6. Liquid nitrogen (en.wikipedia.org)

What I came away with

Bednorz and Müller's 1986 cuprate discovery won the Nobel the very next year. YBCO superconducting at about 92 K meant cheap liquid nitrogen (77 K) could replace liquid helium. Almost 40 years later there's still no agreed explanation of how cuprates superconduct.

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