Superconductors: The Breakthrough

by Robert M. Hazen, Matt Ridley

This is the story of the discovery of the superconductor and the race to announce the breakthrough for which the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded. Hazen worked with Paul Chu who was the first to find the winning formula which led to the discovery of high-temperature superconductors - Chu did not win the Nobel Prize but was certainly a key figure and was widely publicized. The story has elements of drama and suspense - because of the huge sums of money involved for those making the breakthrough, there was a need for great secrecy to avoid industrial espionage. The foreword has been commissioned from Dr Matt Ridley who explains what superconductivity will mean in everyday life and compares Hazen and Chu's work with that of other scientists in the field, in particular with that of other Nobel Prize winners.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics

Paperback

First published May 1, 1988

About the author

Robert M. Hazen, Senior Research Scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory and the Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University, received the B.S. and S.M. in geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1971), and the Ph.D. at Harvard University in earth science (1975). The Past President of the Mineralogical Society of America, Hazen’s recent research focuses on the possible roles of minerals in the origin of life. He is also Principal Investigator of the Deep Carbon Observatory.