A superconductor is a material in which electricity flows without loss, like water through a perfectly smooth pipe. But if you squeeze it slightly, like a spring, its properties change. Scientists have long wanted to measure how much heat such a compressed material absorbs, but instruments couldn't fit into the cramped setup. Now they've devised a way around this obstacle.

Instead of measuring heat directly, they measure tiny temperature fluctuations when the material is rapidly compressed and released. It's like watching someone's breathing without touching them. By combining measurements at slow and fast compression, they get an accurate heat map across the entire sample. For the superconductor Sr₂RuO₄, this map revealed something surprising: at a certain compression, the material's internal order becomes most robust.

This discovery helps us understand how to control superconductors with pressure. Perhaps in the future, such materials will work at higher temperatures, bringing us closer to lossless wires in our homes.