Rhea Stewart

An ordinary superconductor works like a perfect conductor: electrons pair up and flow without resistance. In the new material TaPtSi, the pairs are arranged differently: their internal symmetry is skewed, and when cooled below the critical temperature, tiny magnetic fields spontaneously emerge inside the crystal.

A thin wire of the new material conducts electricity without loss when cooled to three degrees above absolute zero. It's like water flowing through a pipe without any friction against the walls. The material is called PtPb3Bi, and its hallmark is an internal structure resembling a bundle of threads: electrons run freely along a thread but struggle to jump between threads.

A metal made of five different atoms is like a soup with bits of carrot, peas, potato, onion, and meat floating in it. Each bit is its own element: chromium, vanadium, titanium, niobium, and tantalum. Such an alloy is called high-entropy: there is no single order, and the atoms are mixed almost randomly.