Superconductors come in from the cold

The author briefly discusses the discovery of superconductivity in 1911 and the two major breakthroughs in 1966 and 1986 in this field. In 1966 a stable composite conductor of Ni-Ti strands embedded in a Cu strip was developed. A superconducting magnet was made from this material. In 1986 superconductors that maintained superconductivity up to 90 K, cooled by liquid N₂, were discovered. The author goes on to briefly discuss the various research projects around the world, involved in high temperature superconductors