It's been a busy week for superconductivity. First, there is the discovery of its antithesis - a superinsulator - by a team out of the Argonne National Laboratory. Then, Princeton University announces findings that have an impact on our understanding of the very nature of superconductivity in the first place.

When superconductors were first discovered in the early twentieth century, it was only at very low temperatures. In 1986, however, the field of high-temperature superconductivity arose, though scientists have only been able to speculate why certain substances become superconductive in that situation. (It should be noted that "high temperature" here is really relative to the "low temperature" of absolute zero. High temperature superconductors still function at over -100 degrees Centigrade, which by most normal standards is still a low temperature.)

The most intriguing element of the Princeton University analysis is that in these high-temperature superconductors the electrons which are most likely to repel other electrons in non-superconductor situations become the most likely to "pair up" with another electron when they become superconductors. The inverse relationship with normal repulsion was not expected, but they were instead anticipating some sort of microscopic "glue" that could explain the properties which bound the electrons into pairs.

The hope of research like this is, ultimately, to fully understand what causes this superconductivity and how it can be used to develop materials which are superconductive at even high temperatures. The holy grail of superconductivity is a room temperature superconductor ... but whether this is feasible has yet to be determined.