Superconductor - the Race for the Prize In science, being first is everything. That's the race - and the goal is your scientific immortality.
DR PAUL GRANT. IBM
The flow of electricity with absolutely no loss due to resistance could mean far cheaper power, levitated trains and ever-faster computers. But until 1986, the technology was so complicated and expensive that almost its only use was for the powerful magnets of medical scanners.
This is the story of a scientific breakthrough and the hectic race that followed - for superconductors that work at higher temperatures, for applications and lucrative manufacturing patents, for an explanation of how the new materials work ... and with luck, a share in a Nobel prize. Narrator Paul Vaughan Film editor SARA GOSLING Written and produced by ALEC NISBETT
Horizon editor ROBIN BRIGHTWELL
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