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Very Short Introductions #204
Superconductivity: A Very Short Introduction
Superconductivity--the flow of electric current without resistance in certain materials as temperatures near absolute zero--is one of the greatest discoveries of 20th century physics, but it can seem impenetrable to those who lack a solid scientific background. Outlining the fascinating history of how superconductivity was discovered, and the race to understand its many mysterious and counter-intuitive phenomena, Stephen Blundell explains in accessible terms the theories that have been developed to explain it, and how they have influenced other areas of science, including the Higgs boson of particle physics and ideas about the early Universe. This Very Short Introduction examines the many strange phenomena observed in superconducting materials, the latest developments in high-temperature superconductivity, the potential of superconductivity to revolutionize the physics and technology of the future, and much more. It is a fascinating detective story, offering invaluable insights
into some of the deepest and most beautiful ideas in physics today.
About the Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
into some of the deepest and most beautiful ideas in physics today.
About the Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
151 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2009
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October 29, 2024
VSI # 204
A good intro to Superconductivity. Some I knew, most I didn't. Probably more relevant to an undergraduate physics, etc., and not just an enthusiastic fan of physics. Enjoyed the introduction to a lot of the 20th Century physicists that are normally ignored because of the attention paid to the rockstar physicists of the nuclear/quantum age.
A good intro to Superconductivity. Some I knew, most I didn't. Probably more relevant to an undergraduate physics, etc., and not just an enthusiastic fan of physics. Enjoyed the introduction to a lot of the 20th Century physicists that are normally ignored because of the attention paid to the rockstar physicists of the nuclear/quantum age.
August 19, 2020
Quite simple and satisfactory introduction to superconductivity.
Update (second reading, 2020):
I think the best part of this book (or any book under the "Very Short Introduction" series) is that it's short yet detailed enough to give a semi-technical introduction that is accessible to laymen and still enjoyable to reasonable experts (e.g. physics students). That this can be achieved in a short, small book while incorporating the "dramatis personae" (people involved in the development of the idea across history) perhaps hints at certain ways in which many ideas (not just physics) can be introduced to people.
Blundell also injects various opinions into this book, which adds some sort of personality into the book rather than just hard historical facts. For example, in the last chapter there's a short discussion on emergent phenomena in physics and why superconductivity as a emergent phenomena does not rely on reductionist approach to be understood, the so-called Anderson's "more is different" principle.
Overall, this book was as great as I remembered (along with the few VSI series I read). I will try to check out other VSI books and see if they share similar quality. Highly recommended, especially because VSI series is now very extensive in terms of topics and for superconductivity this is probably the best book to start with (and it's short!).
Update (second reading, 2020):
I think the best part of this book (or any book under the "Very Short Introduction" series) is that it's short yet detailed enough to give a semi-technical introduction that is accessible to laymen and still enjoyable to reasonable experts (e.g. physics students). That this can be achieved in a short, small book while incorporating the "dramatis personae" (people involved in the development of the idea across history) perhaps hints at certain ways in which many ideas (not just physics) can be introduced to people.
Blundell also injects various opinions into this book, which adds some sort of personality into the book rather than just hard historical facts. For example, in the last chapter there's a short discussion on emergent phenomena in physics and why superconductivity as a emergent phenomena does not rely on reductionist approach to be understood, the so-called Anderson's "more is different" principle.
Overall, this book was as great as I remembered (along with the few VSI series I read). I will try to check out other VSI books and see if they share similar quality. Highly recommended, especially because VSI series is now very extensive in terms of topics and for superconductivity this is probably the best book to start with (and it's short!).
October 22, 2019
Este livro prepara-nos para o futuro, sem descurar o passado.
Tudo começa no século XIX com Michael Faraday. Este ávido autodidacta que, contra todas as adversidades, nos revelou o electromagnetismo e deu um contributo decisivo na área da supercondutividade. A partir daí somaram-se descobertas e espantos: as propriedades bizarras da matéria (quando arrefecidas até ao zero absoluto ou submetidas ao calor extremo) e as possibilidades infinitas dos materiais supercondutores (a corrente eléctrica circula neles sem resistência nem perdas, num estado indefinido de duração).
Todas estas noções são avançadas pelo livro de um modo claro e desconstruído; o livro promete (e cumpre) uma abordagem que decifre a física, química e matemática por detrás de tudo isto.
Não se fica apenas pela história e características dos supercondutores: revela-nos as possibilidades infinitas que um mundo assim tão "super" poderá ter. Embora não fosse preciso pois a supercondutividade já está presente na nossa vida: é utilizada nos exames de imagiologia (ressonâncias magnéticas) e pode ser observada, nomeadamente, nos comboios de levitação magnética (Maglev). Esta espantosa característica dos materiais supercondutores que permite a levitação, dá-se quando as forças do campo magnético gerado no interior desses materiais são repelidas por substâncias diamagnéticas.
Parece uma história dos heróis da Marvel, mas não é. Está contada de forma precisa, mas sem perder o interesse ou sobrecarregar o leitor com noções químicas e matemáticas que ele não tem (nem precisar de ter para esta leitura).
Para quem se interessar por esta matéria em concreto, este livro é muito útil. Seja porque prepara o leitor para leituras mais complexas, seja porque dota o leigo (curioso) de conhecimentos básicos mas suficientes.
Tudo começa no século XIX com Michael Faraday. Este ávido autodidacta que, contra todas as adversidades, nos revelou o electromagnetismo e deu um contributo decisivo na área da supercondutividade. A partir daí somaram-se descobertas e espantos: as propriedades bizarras da matéria (quando arrefecidas até ao zero absoluto ou submetidas ao calor extremo) e as possibilidades infinitas dos materiais supercondutores (a corrente eléctrica circula neles sem resistência nem perdas, num estado indefinido de duração).
Todas estas noções são avançadas pelo livro de um modo claro e desconstruído; o livro promete (e cumpre) uma abordagem que decifre a física, química e matemática por detrás de tudo isto.
Não se fica apenas pela história e características dos supercondutores: revela-nos as possibilidades infinitas que um mundo assim tão "super" poderá ter. Embora não fosse preciso pois a supercondutividade já está presente na nossa vida: é utilizada nos exames de imagiologia (ressonâncias magnéticas) e pode ser observada, nomeadamente, nos comboios de levitação magnética (Maglev). Esta espantosa característica dos materiais supercondutores que permite a levitação, dá-se quando as forças do campo magnético gerado no interior desses materiais são repelidas por substâncias diamagnéticas.
Parece uma história dos heróis da Marvel, mas não é. Está contada de forma precisa, mas sem perder o interesse ou sobrecarregar o leitor com noções químicas e matemáticas que ele não tem (nem precisar de ter para esta leitura).
Para quem se interessar por esta matéria em concreto, este livro é muito útil. Seja porque prepara o leitor para leituras mais complexas, seja porque dota o leigo (curioso) de conhecimentos básicos mas suficientes.
April 5, 2011
This is a very nice history of superconductivity research.
The lecture is well organized and quite thorough for a "very short introduction".
A background in quantum physics helps, but really isn't necessary to enjoy it.
I was a little upset by the concluding remarks, where the author bad-mouths reductionism for no apparent reason!
He's making an important point: scale matters.
You don't want to have to solve the Schrodinger Equation for a macroscopic superconducting magnet; or anything bigger than a Bucky-ball, for that matter.
The unsolved problem is to find a rule, at some scale or another, that predicts the superconductivity of a given material.
I just can't see how vilifying reductionism helps in this at all.
True, emergent behaviors aren't seen using a pure reductionist approach.
But the author sounds like he's preaching to some crowd of obnoxious reductionism-fascists who would deny that any scale but the smallest scale is ever useful for doing physics!
To my knowledge, no such ideology has ever existed, but maybe Blundell has had some unfortunate exchanges with this rare breed in the past...
The lecture is well organized and quite thorough for a "very short introduction".
A background in quantum physics helps, but really isn't necessary to enjoy it.
I was a little upset by the concluding remarks, where the author bad-mouths reductionism for no apparent reason!
He's making an important point: scale matters.
You don't want to have to solve the Schrodinger Equation for a macroscopic superconducting magnet; or anything bigger than a Bucky-ball, for that matter.
The unsolved problem is to find a rule, at some scale or another, that predicts the superconductivity of a given material.
I just can't see how vilifying reductionism helps in this at all.
True, emergent behaviors aren't seen using a pure reductionist approach.
But the author sounds like he's preaching to some crowd of obnoxious reductionism-fascists who would deny that any scale but the smallest scale is ever useful for doing physics!
To my knowledge, no such ideology has ever existed, but maybe Blundell has had some unfortunate exchanges with this rare breed in the past...
July 14, 2023
pretty COOL
April 25, 2011
The twentieth century was replete with profound new discoveries in Physics that radically reshaped the way we think about the world around us. In a nutshell, we can think of these conceptual breakthroughs in terms of two simple slogans: "small is different" and "more is different." "Small is different" refers to the fact that when we look at the world at the very smallest scale the usual laws of everyday Physics start to break down. We are unable to determine position of objects with any finite certainty, objects seem to be able to be at two possible locations at a same time, and properties of objects don't vary smoothly but come in terms of discrete values. The realm of the very smallest is investigated in the parts of Physics that we call Quantum Mechanics (see for instance Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)) and Particle Physics (see for instance Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. When we think of modern Physics, this is usually what we first have in mind. However, another important conceptual line of investigation is encapsulated in the other phrase, "more is different." This refers to the fact that many times, a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and under certain conditions it is impossible to understand the behavior of a system of particles just by understanding the properties of individual particles. In fact, in some cases the notion of individual particle itself becomes suspect. Quantum mechanics itself has already hinted at some of this, but the branch of Physics that are deals with this approach to the world around us the most is called "Solid State Physics" or "Condensed Matter Physics." This is an area of vast and important active research, both theoretical and experimental, but it has never quite gotten the public recognition that it warrants. For instance Jim Bardeen, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, is hardly a household name. This very short introduction is a good starting point to get acquainted with one phenomenon that the Condensed Matter Physics deals with, and that is the phenomenon of Superconductivity.
Superconductivity is the property of certain materials that endows them with perfect conductivity at very low temperatures. Since the temperatures at which it manifests itself are extremely low, until the early part of twentieth century it was a completely unknown phenomenon. The first chapter or so of this book deal with the search for the very low temperatures, and the significant milestones along that way. We are then shown how the search for these low temperatures lead to the discovery of some very interesting properties of metals at those extreme regimes, among which was superconductivity. The first part of the twentieth century was spent at discovery and better characterization of superconducting materials, primarily metals, but a theoretical understanding of superconductivity proved much more elusive. A breakthrough happened in 1950s, when aforementioned John Bardeen with a couple of his collaborators came up with a theory of "regular" superconductivity, i.e. the kind of superconductivity that was known to exist up through 1980s. And then, in 1980s superconductivity was discovered in all sorts of unexpected places, and many of the materials that it was discovered in were not even metals. The theory of this so-called high-temperature superconductivity has to this day eluded researchers.
What makes superconductivity so important to study is the fact that it is the ultimate many-body phenomenon: superconductivity cannot be reduced to conduction of individual electrons, but all of the electrons in a material must be taken into the account at once, together with their interaction with the rest of the material. This is what makes understanding superconductivity intrinsically difficult.
The book concludes with several applications of superconductivity and prospects for future research and discovery. This is a very well written book that makes a very difficult subject accessible to the general audience.
Superconductivity is the property of certain materials that endows them with perfect conductivity at very low temperatures. Since the temperatures at which it manifests itself are extremely low, until the early part of twentieth century it was a completely unknown phenomenon. The first chapter or so of this book deal with the search for the very low temperatures, and the significant milestones along that way. We are then shown how the search for these low temperatures lead to the discovery of some very interesting properties of metals at those extreme regimes, among which was superconductivity. The first part of the twentieth century was spent at discovery and better characterization of superconducting materials, primarily metals, but a theoretical understanding of superconductivity proved much more elusive. A breakthrough happened in 1950s, when aforementioned John Bardeen with a couple of his collaborators came up with a theory of "regular" superconductivity, i.e. the kind of superconductivity that was known to exist up through 1980s. And then, in 1980s superconductivity was discovered in all sorts of unexpected places, and many of the materials that it was discovered in were not even metals. The theory of this so-called high-temperature superconductivity has to this day eluded researchers.
What makes superconductivity so important to study is the fact that it is the ultimate many-body phenomenon: superconductivity cannot be reduced to conduction of individual electrons, but all of the electrons in a material must be taken into the account at once, together with their interaction with the rest of the material. This is what makes understanding superconductivity intrinsically difficult.
The book concludes with several applications of superconductivity and prospects for future research and discovery. This is a very well written book that makes a very difficult subject accessible to the general audience.
November 14, 2025
When electricity moves through something it heats up (Joule heating). This leads to a lot of waste in power transfer (though is also useful in kettles and ovens). A superconductor has no friction, doesn't heat up, and could transfer electricity in a loop forever. If we could do this at room temperature, it would be very useful!
Quick intro to low-temperature physics: Farraday isolated chlorine gas and was able to precipitate it into liquid by using low pressure to create very low temperatures inside his apparatus. This connection between pressure and temperature is why tea tastes bad on mountaintops: water boils at a low temperature and is not as able to extract the flavour from the tea. (It is also the principle behind air conditioning - where air is condensed and then cools by expanding - one of the great blessings of life in a hot country.) Better techniques were soon discovered, and soon scientists got busy freezing gases into solids.
The theory of ideal gases was modified via the Van der Waals law to explain that there are attractive forces between the molecules, which is why any gas can condense into a liquid. Hydrogen was tough, but helium was the final boss: it was finally condensed in Leiden by Heike Onnus, for which he received the 1913 Physics Nobel. This also led to the development of storage vessels for ultra-cold liquids, which gave us the thermos flask.
Since the resistance of a solid drops as temperature drops, scientists wondered what would happen at absolute zero. Some thought resistance would be zero, other that this didn't make sense and it would reach a minimum somewhere above zero. Lord Kelvin guessed that the electrons wouldn't move at all, so there would be 100% resistance.
It turns out that the first guess was correct. Scientists connected very cold mercury to a battery to get a current going, then disconnected the battery and watched it keep moving! It turns out that, strangely, superconductivity works better in materials that are bad conductors, for reasons that would be discovered much later.
The Meißner effect is that when a conductor drops temperature and switches to a state of superconductivity, it will push out a magnetic field, repelling nearby magnets. Why does this happen? The answer required some cutting-edge science of the time (1950s), quantum chemistry. The discoverer was John Bardeen, who the author thinks is unfairly unknown due to not having much personality, but he was a brilliant scientist, one of the few people to have won two Nobels (the second of which was for this discovery). Basically (my understand may be faulty) electrons behave in some ways as particles and in some ways as waves. Within a superconductor, the waves are all in the same phase, so there is no interference between them. This means that there is no resistance, and also no magnetic field. The superconductor pushes out magnetic activity to a certain radius around it, known as the London penetration depth. The electrons pair with phonons (tiny particles of vibration, small units of sound as photons are of light) into Cooper pairs.
Superconductors are extremely useful, used to create strong magnetic fields in particle accelerators and MRI machines. Using liquid helium to get them very cold is expensive and difficult, so the holy grail of the field is a room temperature superconductor. We still don't have a very good understanding of which materials will tend out to be superconductors, so it's quite possible that someone will find one.
I really enjoyed the writing and storytelling in this book. Teaching science as the history of science, instead of an assembly of facts, conveys the sense of mystery and excitement that drove the pioneers of this field. Blundell is a Physics professor at Oxford and is married to another one, the author of the VSI to Black Holes.
Quick intro to low-temperature physics: Farraday isolated chlorine gas and was able to precipitate it into liquid by using low pressure to create very low temperatures inside his apparatus. This connection between pressure and temperature is why tea tastes bad on mountaintops: water boils at a low temperature and is not as able to extract the flavour from the tea. (It is also the principle behind air conditioning - where air is condensed and then cools by expanding - one of the great blessings of life in a hot country.) Better techniques were soon discovered, and soon scientists got busy freezing gases into solids.
The theory of ideal gases was modified via the Van der Waals law to explain that there are attractive forces between the molecules, which is why any gas can condense into a liquid. Hydrogen was tough, but helium was the final boss: it was finally condensed in Leiden by Heike Onnus, for which he received the 1913 Physics Nobel. This also led to the development of storage vessels for ultra-cold liquids, which gave us the thermos flask.
Since the resistance of a solid drops as temperature drops, scientists wondered what would happen at absolute zero. Some thought resistance would be zero, other that this didn't make sense and it would reach a minimum somewhere above zero. Lord Kelvin guessed that the electrons wouldn't move at all, so there would be 100% resistance.
It turns out that the first guess was correct. Scientists connected very cold mercury to a battery to get a current going, then disconnected the battery and watched it keep moving! It turns out that, strangely, superconductivity works better in materials that are bad conductors, for reasons that would be discovered much later.
The Meißner effect is that when a conductor drops temperature and switches to a state of superconductivity, it will push out a magnetic field, repelling nearby magnets. Why does this happen? The answer required some cutting-edge science of the time (1950s), quantum chemistry. The discoverer was John Bardeen, who the author thinks is unfairly unknown due to not having much personality, but he was a brilliant scientist, one of the few people to have won two Nobels (the second of which was for this discovery). Basically (my understand may be faulty) electrons behave in some ways as particles and in some ways as waves. Within a superconductor, the waves are all in the same phase, so there is no interference between them. This means that there is no resistance, and also no magnetic field. The superconductor pushes out magnetic activity to a certain radius around it, known as the London penetration depth. The electrons pair with phonons (tiny particles of vibration, small units of sound as photons are of light) into Cooper pairs.
Superconductors are extremely useful, used to create strong magnetic fields in particle accelerators and MRI machines. Using liquid helium to get them very cold is expensive and difficult, so the holy grail of the field is a room temperature superconductor. We still don't have a very good understanding of which materials will tend out to be superconductors, so it's quite possible that someone will find one.
I really enjoyed the writing and storytelling in this book. Teaching science as the history of science, instead of an assembly of facts, conveys the sense of mystery and excitement that drove the pioneers of this field. Blundell is a Physics professor at Oxford and is married to another one, the author of the VSI to Black Holes.
August 31, 2020
La ciència, tal i com jo l’entenc, no és res més que curiositat il·limitada sobre els fenòmens naturals. Els científics del segle XIX (i alguns dels del segle XX), centraven els seus interessos en el que avui són disciplines molt diferents i deixaven que la curiositat fos la que guiés la seva recerca. La recerca ha avançat tant en molts camps que els científics actuals som necessàriament ben diferents; la inmensa majoria de nosaltres treballem en un camp de recerca molt específic i el nostre coneixement de tot el que s’escapa d’aquest camp no és massa superior del que té una persona de fora de l’àmbit científic. No obstant, hi ha un tret comú dels científics que, a vegades, ens ajuda a compensar lleugerament aquest ignorància: la nostra curiositat innata. Per això, sospito que la majoria de gent subscrita a revistes científiques de divulgació com pot ser Scientific American (la versió espanyola es diu Investigación & Ciencia) som científics que volem saber què es cou en altres camps de recerca.
En les breus vacances que he fet aquest estiu he aprofitat per posar-me una mica al dia, i m’he trobat llegint sobre superconductivitat. És un camp que està a mig camí entre la física d’estat sòlid, la ciència dels materials i la química. La superconductivitat és un fenòmen curiós que bàsicament consisteix en la capacitat que tenen alguns materials de conduir l’electricitat sense que hi hagi cap resistència (i, per tant, cap pèrdua energètica). És a dir, si muntem un circuit elèctric amb aquestes substàncies, un cop engegat, no s’atura. El gran problema pràctic d’aquests materials és que el caràcter superconductor el presenten a temperatures molt baixes (properes al zero absolut, o temperatura mínima possible) i, per això, desde fa molts anys hi ha una cursa científica per trobar el superconductor amb una temperatura crítica més alta (actualment és de 139K —uns -134ºC— per bé que el LaH10 a pressions altes presenta una Tc de -23ºC). El que m’ha resultat més sorprenent és que la superconductivitat encara no s’entén completament bé. Hi ha teories (la més famosa la de Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) que poden explicar els primers superconductors però, avui per avui, no n’hi ha cap que pugui descriure bé tots els materials superconductors que s’han trobat. La mecànica quàntica ens explica alguns dels fenòmens que es donen en els superconductors però no permet identificar-los com tal. S’especula que la superconductivitat és una propietat emergent, és a dir, una propietat que no és inherent a les parts constituents (els àtoms, en el cas que ens ocupa) sinó que es dóna com a resultat de la presència d’un col·lectiu. És per això que és fa tan difícil trobar nous superconductors i arribar a sintetitzar un material que sigui superconductor a temperatura ambient.
Doncs bé, fascinat per aquestes coses, he volgut aprendre una mica més sobre aquest fenomen i m’he llegit aquest excel·lent llibre de Stephen Blundell. Es tracta d’un llibre de divulgació (si bé no venen malament nocions bàsiques de física per no perdre’s detall) que explica de forma magistral la història de la superconductivitat i tots els seus actors principals. És una d’aquelles històries científiques que ho té tot: herois i malvats, genialitat i serendipitat, perseverança i frau, història i física, molta física. M’ho he passat teta llegint aquest llibre i m’he quedat amb ganes de més. Així que m’he comprat un llibre de física sobre la teoria de la superconductivitat que espero poder anar llegint a estones lliures.
Per acabar, només comentar-vos que aquest llibre és part de la sèrie de llibres ‘A very short introduction’ (Oxford University Press) que —a jutjar per la cura amb que està escrit aquest treball i la puntuació que tenen a amazon i goodreads altres llibres de la sèrie— crec que val molt la pena. Hi podeu trobar tot tipus de llibres: ciències, història, art, filosofia, biografies, etc.
En les breus vacances que he fet aquest estiu he aprofitat per posar-me una mica al dia, i m’he trobat llegint sobre superconductivitat. És un camp que està a mig camí entre la física d’estat sòlid, la ciència dels materials i la química. La superconductivitat és un fenòmen curiós que bàsicament consisteix en la capacitat que tenen alguns materials de conduir l’electricitat sense que hi hagi cap resistència (i, per tant, cap pèrdua energètica). És a dir, si muntem un circuit elèctric amb aquestes substàncies, un cop engegat, no s’atura. El gran problema pràctic d’aquests materials és que el caràcter superconductor el presenten a temperatures molt baixes (properes al zero absolut, o temperatura mínima possible) i, per això, desde fa molts anys hi ha una cursa científica per trobar el superconductor amb una temperatura crítica més alta (actualment és de 139K —uns -134ºC— per bé que el LaH10 a pressions altes presenta una Tc de -23ºC). El que m’ha resultat més sorprenent és que la superconductivitat encara no s’entén completament bé. Hi ha teories (la més famosa la de Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) que poden explicar els primers superconductors però, avui per avui, no n’hi ha cap que pugui descriure bé tots els materials superconductors que s’han trobat. La mecànica quàntica ens explica alguns dels fenòmens que es donen en els superconductors però no permet identificar-los com tal. S’especula que la superconductivitat és una propietat emergent, és a dir, una propietat que no és inherent a les parts constituents (els àtoms, en el cas que ens ocupa) sinó que es dóna com a resultat de la presència d’un col·lectiu. És per això que és fa tan difícil trobar nous superconductors i arribar a sintetitzar un material que sigui superconductor a temperatura ambient.
Doncs bé, fascinat per aquestes coses, he volgut aprendre una mica més sobre aquest fenomen i m’he llegit aquest excel·lent llibre de Stephen Blundell. Es tracta d’un llibre de divulgació (si bé no venen malament nocions bàsiques de física per no perdre’s detall) que explica de forma magistral la història de la superconductivitat i tots els seus actors principals. És una d’aquelles històries científiques que ho té tot: herois i malvats, genialitat i serendipitat, perseverança i frau, història i física, molta física. M’ho he passat teta llegint aquest llibre i m’he quedat amb ganes de més. Així que m’he comprat un llibre de física sobre la teoria de la superconductivitat que espero poder anar llegint a estones lliures.
Per acabar, només comentar-vos que aquest llibre és part de la sèrie de llibres ‘A very short introduction’ (Oxford University Press) que —a jutjar per la cura amb que està escrit aquest treball i la puntuació que tenen a amazon i goodreads altres llibres de la sèrie— crec que val molt la pena. Hi podeu trobar tot tipus de llibres: ciències, història, art, filosofia, biografies, etc.
June 28, 2018
Superconductivity: A Very Short Introduction (2009) by Stephen J Blundell is a really fine history and introduction to superconductivity. The author is a professor of Physics at Oxford who has also written a number of physics textbooks. It's great to see someone who can explain things so well at many different levels.
I recently listened to the excellent Omega Tau Podcast on superconductivity and decided to read a book that had some more information about the history of superconductivity and how it works. This book provides exactly that in a really digestible form and there are even a few funny jokes in the book.
Superconductivity was a surprise discovery made when people were experimenting with just how cool they could make things and if they could obtain liquid Helium. That conductivity became infinite was highly unexpected. The physical explanation for this took decades. It's interesting to compare the long time it took to explain superconductivity to the relatively short time it took work out how to make nuclear reactors and weapons.
The explanations for superconductivity have to be quantum in nature. Then the way in which higher and higher temperature superconductors have been discovered is really remarkable. It gives an insight into just how much great research there is into materials going on quietly all over the world. It's also startling how the highest temperature superconductor having been created went from 3K in about 1900 to about 25K in 1985 then to 138K in 1993.
It's a really well done book that is very informative, fascinating and easy to read.
I recently listened to the excellent Omega Tau Podcast on superconductivity and decided to read a book that had some more information about the history of superconductivity and how it works. This book provides exactly that in a really digestible form and there are even a few funny jokes in the book.
Superconductivity was a surprise discovery made when people were experimenting with just how cool they could make things and if they could obtain liquid Helium. That conductivity became infinite was highly unexpected. The physical explanation for this took decades. It's interesting to compare the long time it took to explain superconductivity to the relatively short time it took work out how to make nuclear reactors and weapons.
The explanations for superconductivity have to be quantum in nature. Then the way in which higher and higher temperature superconductors have been discovered is really remarkable. It gives an insight into just how much great research there is into materials going on quietly all over the world. It's also startling how the highest temperature superconductor having been created went from 3K in about 1900 to about 25K in 1985 then to 138K in 1993.
It's a really well done book that is very informative, fascinating and easy to read.
September 10, 2021
That was way more fun than the title implied (if you love technobabble)
This was a little tour of the history of science by way of one subject. Since that single subject has math, chemistry, engineering, cryogenics, and quantum mechanics and has been around for over a hundred years, this little tour covers a lot of ground.
What made this fun for me, as a layman was the diversity of the personalities involved. There are a lot of real characters in here and they run the gambit from mild to nasty.
What was missing was that intro chapter that is usually titled "So, what is superconductivity". This thing just jumps right in. And that great if you love all those little side facts like "Helium was discovered on the sun before it was found on earth" Wow! I love junk like that.
If you love that stuff too, grab some headphones because I recommend this as an audio-book.
This was a little tour of the history of science by way of one subject. Since that single subject has math, chemistry, engineering, cryogenics, and quantum mechanics and has been around for over a hundred years, this little tour covers a lot of ground.
What made this fun for me, as a layman was the diversity of the personalities involved. There are a lot of real characters in here and they run the gambit from mild to nasty.
What was missing was that intro chapter that is usually titled "So, what is superconductivity". This thing just jumps right in. And that great if you love all those little side facts like "Helium was discovered on the sun before it was found on earth" Wow! I love junk like that.
If you love that stuff too, grab some headphones because I recommend this as an audio-book.
July 10, 2017
I went into this book with very little knowledge of what a superconductor even was. I took 3 courses of physics of college, so I’m sure it was briefly mentioned at some point, but not in the depth that Stephen Blundell presented it in his book. I really, really enjoyed this text. I know it’s called “A Very Short Introduction,” but I feel it was still very comprehensive. Stephen does a fantastic job at keeping things easy to comprehend for all backgrounds. His explanations never get overly technical, so I never felt “lost” while reading. After reading this, I really want to go play in a low temperature lab, to see this phenomenon and experience the wonders of zero resistance metals first-hand.
January 18, 2019
This is a very complex topic, which I was intrigued about, but also intimidated by. My initial interest was sparked by a friend telling me that perpetual motion is possible, only within a superconductor looped to connect to itself, and placed in the coldest parts of the universe - a current would go around the loop forever. That seemed impossible to me, but it appears that superconductivity may, in fact, offer this and several other interesting phenomena. This introduction was understandable until the topic of "London penetration depth" came about, after which point many important details were lost on me. Still, I believe revisiting this book after reading several other physics books will help me understand more.
December 3, 2022
An excellent survey of the discoveries in superconductivity.
Superconductivity is the best. It's a crazy phenomena, attempts to understand it have produced super interesting new ideas, and it could well be really really useful if we understand it more.
I did research on it when I used to be a pure physicist, and sometimes I get nostalgia pulling me back, this book really added to that.
That said, this book is more an excellent historical survey, and doesn't convey some of the beauty I found in the ideas. But I still got excited by it, so that's nice.
Superconductivity is the best. It's a crazy phenomena, attempts to understand it have produced super interesting new ideas, and it could well be really really useful if we understand it more.
I did research on it when I used to be a pure physicist, and sometimes I get nostalgia pulling me back, this book really added to that.
That said, this book is more an excellent historical survey, and doesn't convey some of the beauty I found in the ideas. But I still got excited by it, so that's nice.
October 22, 2024
Read this for my project just to get the basic ideas of superconductivity. It's ok, I think it suffers from being written for a non-specialist audience, and as a result it's way too qualitative at times, and could've really done with some equations to explain some of the big ideas. But it gave a good starting point for me to look into and understand the big concepts underpinning my project this year. Also interesting to hear about the variety of personalities that contributed to this field over the last century or so (eugenicists, shamans...)
January 2, 2019
The quest for understanding superconductivity, reads like a thriller. In my view the most interesting part is that where the author is describing the experimental discovery and the quest for general theory of superconductivity. It is followed by a section on material science, which sounds more like black art than science. It is still interesting but less so. The next section details the applications and is again more interesting - from my point of view at least.
Highly recommended!!
Highly recommended!!
October 23, 2025
a funny story from the book: Paul Chu thought the anonymous referees for Physical Review Letters would steal his discovery of a 93K superconducting material. to protect his work he deliberately submitted substituted ytterbium (Yb) for yttrium (Y) and after the paper was accepted and sent back for final proofreading he corrected the formula. but it later turned out the fake ytterbium compound also worked as a superconductor, though not quite as well (still at state of the art for the time!).
December 1, 2025
Fantastic intro for the general reader. (Even better if you know some technical details!) Steve Blundell really excels when it comes to telling stories about physics discoveries and the people involved! I got hooked and finished the book in a couple of seatings. Will definitely check out his VSI on magnetism (although I’ve used his more technical textbook a few years ago!)
December 1, 2018
Excellent short intro to the phenomenon of superconductivity. Requires advanced high school or introductory college physics to fully understand the topic as described, but reads like a good popular history book. Highly recommended!
August 20, 2023
Interesting, although a little over my head. Helped me appreciate the movie OPPENHEIMER, which dealt which such concepts, including chemistry. Reading it made me realize how much we live nowadays in a scientific world.
November 19, 2020
This book was an excellent introduction to superconductivity covering some theory, experiments, and applications. After reading it, I need to learn more about this topic now. ;)
Read
March 29, 2022we discovered something today
June 2, 2022
well written! I liked that it also included details leading up to the discovery
August 26, 2022
An excellent read! More than superconductivity, the book let's you see what's actually needed for an experimental discovery.
March 28, 2023
A solid history sprinkled with a playful sense of humor, but at times waxes a bit technical for the layperson--and even for someone with a few university physics courses under their belt.
September 11, 2023
love that science is just a bunch of guys having beef with each other and accidentally discovering things
4.5
4.5
March 11, 2024
A very nice introduction! Very readable, and provides a good balance of history and theory.
March 30, 2024
Excellent. Sometimes, a 140-page book is all you need.
May 23, 2011
review of Dr. Bozan Tunguz
The twentieth century was replete with profound new discoveries in Physics that radically reshaped the way we think about the world around us. In a nutshell, we can think of these conceptual breakthroughs in terms of two simple slogans: "small is different" and "more is different." "Small is different" refers to the fact that when we look at the world at the very smallest scale the usual laws of everyday Physics start to break down. We are unable to determine position of objects with any finite certainty, objects seem to be able to be at two possible locations at a same time, and properties of objects don't vary smoothly but come in terms of discrete values. The realm of the very smallest is investigated in the parts of Physics that we call Quantum Mechanics (see for instance Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)) and Particle Physics (see for instance Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. When we think of modern Physics, this is usually what we first have in mind. However, another important conceptual line of investigation is encapsulated in the other phrase, "more is different." This refers to the fact that many times, a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and under certain conditions it is impossible to understand the behavior of a system of particles just by understanding the properties of individual particles. In fact, in some cases the notion of individual particle itself becomes suspect. Quantum mechanics itself has already hinted at some of this, but the branch of Physics that are deals with this approach to the world around us the most is called "Solid State Physics" or "Condensed Matter Physics." This is an area of vast and important active research, both theoretical and experimental, but it has never quite gotten the public recognition that it warrants. For instance Jim Bardeen, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, is hardly a household name. This very short introduction is a good starting point to get acquainted with one phenomenon that the Condensed Matter Physics deals with, and that is the phenomenon of Superconductivity.
Superconductivity is the property of certain materials that endows them with perfect conductivity at very low temperatures. Since the temperatures at which it manifests itself are extremely low, until the early part of twentieth century it was a completely unknown phenomenon. The first chapter or so of this book deal with the search for the very low temperatures, and the significant milestones along that way. We are then shown how the search for these low temperatures lead to the discovery of some very interesting properties of metals at those extreme regimes, among which was superconductivity. The first part of the twentieth century was spent at discovery and better characterization of superconducting materials, primarily metals, but a theoretical understanding of superconductivity proved much more elusive. A breakthrough happened in 1950s, when aforementioned John Bardeen with a couple of his collaborators came up with a theory of "regular" superconductivity, i.e. the kind of superconductivity that was known to exist up through 1980s. And then, in 1980s superconductivity was discovered in all sorts of unexpected places, and many of the materials that it was discovered in were not even metals. The theory of this so-called high-temperature superconductivity has to this day eluded researchers.
What makes superconductivity so important to study is the fact that it is the ultimate many-body phenomenon: superconductivity cannot be reduced to conduction of individual electrons, but all of the electrons in a material must be taken into the account at once, together with their interaction with the rest of the material. This is what makes understanding superconductivity intrinsically difficult.
The book concludes with several applications of superconductivity and prospects for future research and discovery. This is a very well written book that makes a very difficult subject accessible to the general audience.
The twentieth century was replete with profound new discoveries in Physics that radically reshaped the way we think about the world around us. In a nutshell, we can think of these conceptual breakthroughs in terms of two simple slogans: "small is different" and "more is different." "Small is different" refers to the fact that when we look at the world at the very smallest scale the usual laws of everyday Physics start to break down. We are unable to determine position of objects with any finite certainty, objects seem to be able to be at two possible locations at a same time, and properties of objects don't vary smoothly but come in terms of discrete values. The realm of the very smallest is investigated in the parts of Physics that we call Quantum Mechanics (see for instance Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)) and Particle Physics (see for instance Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction. When we think of modern Physics, this is usually what we first have in mind. However, another important conceptual line of investigation is encapsulated in the other phrase, "more is different." This refers to the fact that many times, a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and under certain conditions it is impossible to understand the behavior of a system of particles just by understanding the properties of individual particles. In fact, in some cases the notion of individual particle itself becomes suspect. Quantum mechanics itself has already hinted at some of this, but the branch of Physics that are deals with this approach to the world around us the most is called "Solid State Physics" or "Condensed Matter Physics." This is an area of vast and important active research, both theoretical and experimental, but it has never quite gotten the public recognition that it warrants. For instance Jim Bardeen, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice, is hardly a household name. This very short introduction is a good starting point to get acquainted with one phenomenon that the Condensed Matter Physics deals with, and that is the phenomenon of Superconductivity.
Superconductivity is the property of certain materials that endows them with perfect conductivity at very low temperatures. Since the temperatures at which it manifests itself are extremely low, until the early part of twentieth century it was a completely unknown phenomenon. The first chapter or so of this book deal with the search for the very low temperatures, and the significant milestones along that way. We are then shown how the search for these low temperatures lead to the discovery of some very interesting properties of metals at those extreme regimes, among which was superconductivity. The first part of the twentieth century was spent at discovery and better characterization of superconducting materials, primarily metals, but a theoretical understanding of superconductivity proved much more elusive. A breakthrough happened in 1950s, when aforementioned John Bardeen with a couple of his collaborators came up with a theory of "regular" superconductivity, i.e. the kind of superconductivity that was known to exist up through 1980s. And then, in 1980s superconductivity was discovered in all sorts of unexpected places, and many of the materials that it was discovered in were not even metals. The theory of this so-called high-temperature superconductivity has to this day eluded researchers.
What makes superconductivity so important to study is the fact that it is the ultimate many-body phenomenon: superconductivity cannot be reduced to conduction of individual electrons, but all of the electrons in a material must be taken into the account at once, together with their interaction with the rest of the material. This is what makes understanding superconductivity intrinsically difficult.
The book concludes with several applications of superconductivity and prospects for future research and discovery. This is a very well written book that makes a very difficult subject accessible to the general audience.
March 9, 2017
Fun, witty, physics is easy to follow. With history fun fact and history lesson that make me wanna pause and think about them for a second. In genera a very good book to read in terms of my current stage, being an experimental physicist and trying to figure out physics in the book and new modeling. And see how new areas can be developed by putting seemingly trivial things together.
OMG Fritz London's intended boat was torpedoed by the German Uboat?!!!! I was just reading about it in the cryptography book!!!!!
Oh my fucking god!!!! Soviet Union arrested and killed physicists?!!!! Such brutality!!!
Yeah, this book can use some update since it's almost 10 year old.
OMG first year grad proposed a Nobel Prize worthy idea yet not good for Ph.D.... Some adviser huh?
The Chu story is just.... Scientific community can get nasty sometimes apparently, and his suspension actually got proved!
Wow... such competition! No wonder Ni Ni is tired.
OMG Fritz London's intended boat was torpedoed by the German Uboat?!!!! I was just reading about it in the cryptography book!!!!!
Oh my fucking god!!!! Soviet Union arrested and killed physicists?!!!! Such brutality!!!
Yeah, this book can use some update since it's almost 10 year old.
OMG first year grad proposed a Nobel Prize worthy idea yet not good for Ph.D.... Some adviser huh?
The Chu story is just.... Scientific community can get nasty sometimes apparently, and his suspension actually got proved!
Wow... such competition! No wonder Ni Ni is tired.
April 5, 2020
2016.05.26–2016.05.30
Contents
Blundell SJ (2009) (04:25) Superconductivity - A Very Short Introduction
Acknowledgments
List of illustrations
• 01. Temperature scales
• 02. Michael Faraday
• 03. Sir James Dewar
• 04. Sir William Ramsay and Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer
• 05. Kamerlingh Onnes and Johannes van der Waals
• 06. Low-temperature resistance of metals
• 07. Results of Onnes' experiments for gold and mercury
• 08. Superconducting elements in earlier versions of periodic table
• 09. Levitation of a superconductor
• 10. Fritz London and Heinz London
• 11. Waves and interference
• 12. Kohn Bardeen
• 13. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley
• 14. Lattice of ions showing Cooper pair
• 15. 'BCS': John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer
• 16. Lev Landau
• 17. Ferromagnet at low temperature and high temperature
• 18. Landau model of phase transitions
• 19. Vitaly Ginzburg
• 20. Superconducting order and critical temperature
• 21. Alexei Abrikosov
• 22. Schematic diagram of the vortex lattice
• 23. Vortex lattice in the superconductor MgB2 using magnetic decoration technique
• 24. Brian Josephson
• 25. Philip Anderson
• 26. Bernd Matthias
• 27. J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller
• 28. Perovskite structure, with chemical formula ABO_3
• 29. Structure of a copper-oxide superconductor
• 30. The Woodstock of physics
• 31. Superconducting transition temperature of selected superconductors
• 32. A fullerene superconductor composed of C_60 buckyballs and additional ions
• 33. The periodic table
• 34. MRI scan of head and shoulders and an MRI scanner
01. What is superconductivity?
02. The quest for low temperatures
• Liquefying gases
• A sudden release
• A new element on the Sun
• Liquefying the lightest element
• Dewar versus Ramsay
03. The discovery of superconductivity
• Through measurement to knowledge
• Resistance is useless?
• First steps
04. Expulsion
• Ohm's law
• Perfect conductors?
• Understanding the Meissner effect
• The London brothers
• Updating Ohm's law
• The London equations
• But what does it all mean?
05. Pairing up
• The isotope effect
• John Bardeen
• Cooper pairs
• Mind the gap
• The BCS theory
• Many body
06. Symmetry
• Dau
• Phase transitions
• Ginzburg and Landau
• Alloys and the 'dirt effect'
• The Higgs boson
07. Before the breakthrough
• Tunnelling
• The weakest link
• How to make a useful superconductor
08. High-temperature superconductivity
• Bednorz and Müller
• Yttrium barium copper oxide
• The Woodstock of physics
09. The making of the new superconductors
• Making new superconductors
• Buckyballs
• Going organic
• The one that got away
• Superconductors out in the elements
• How to communicate your results
• Magic hands
• Arsenic and old lace
• But how does it work?
10. What have superconductors ever done for us?
• Superconducting magnets
• Looking inside your head
• Particle accelerators
• Power and levitation
• Niche applications
• The quantum protectorate
Dramatis personae
Further reading
Index
Contents
Blundell SJ (2009) (04:25) Superconductivity - A Very Short Introduction
Acknowledgments
List of illustrations
• 01. Temperature scales
• 02. Michael Faraday
• 03. Sir James Dewar
• 04. Sir William Ramsay and Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer
• 05. Kamerlingh Onnes and Johannes van der Waals
• 06. Low-temperature resistance of metals
• 07. Results of Onnes' experiments for gold and mercury
• 08. Superconducting elements in earlier versions of periodic table
• 09. Levitation of a superconductor
• 10. Fritz London and Heinz London
• 11. Waves and interference
• 12. Kohn Bardeen
• 13. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley
• 14. Lattice of ions showing Cooper pair
• 15. 'BCS': John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer
• 16. Lev Landau
• 17. Ferromagnet at low temperature and high temperature
• 18. Landau model of phase transitions
• 19. Vitaly Ginzburg
• 20. Superconducting order and critical temperature
• 21. Alexei Abrikosov
• 22. Schematic diagram of the vortex lattice
• 23. Vortex lattice in the superconductor MgB2 using magnetic decoration technique
• 24. Brian Josephson
• 25. Philip Anderson
• 26. Bernd Matthias
• 27. J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller
• 28. Perovskite structure, with chemical formula ABO_3
• 29. Structure of a copper-oxide superconductor
• 30. The Woodstock of physics
• 31. Superconducting transition temperature of selected superconductors
• 32. A fullerene superconductor composed of C_60 buckyballs and additional ions
• 33. The periodic table
• 34. MRI scan of head and shoulders and an MRI scanner
01. What is superconductivity?
02. The quest for low temperatures
• Liquefying gases
• A sudden release
• A new element on the Sun
• Liquefying the lightest element
• Dewar versus Ramsay
03. The discovery of superconductivity
• Through measurement to knowledge
• Resistance is useless?
• First steps
04. Expulsion
• Ohm's law
• Perfect conductors?
• Understanding the Meissner effect
• The London brothers
• Updating Ohm's law
• The London equations
• But what does it all mean?
05. Pairing up
• The isotope effect
• John Bardeen
• Cooper pairs
• Mind the gap
• The BCS theory
• Many body
06. Symmetry
• Dau
• Phase transitions
• Ginzburg and Landau
• Alloys and the 'dirt effect'
• The Higgs boson
07. Before the breakthrough
• Tunnelling
• The weakest link
• How to make a useful superconductor
08. High-temperature superconductivity
• Bednorz and Müller
• Yttrium barium copper oxide
• The Woodstock of physics
09. The making of the new superconductors
• Making new superconductors
• Buckyballs
• Going organic
• The one that got away
• Superconductors out in the elements
• How to communicate your results
• Magic hands
• Arsenic and old lace
• But how does it work?
10. What have superconductors ever done for us?
• Superconducting magnets
• Looking inside your head
• Particle accelerators
• Power and levitation
• Niche applications
• The quantum protectorate
Dramatis personae
Further reading
Index
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews