If you squeeze a specific rare metal thin enough, it can carry electricity with zero waste at temperatures that aren't even that cold.
April 13, 2026
Original Paper
High-temperature superconductivity in Nd$_{0.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$NiO$_2$ membranes under pressure
arXiv · 2604.09525
The Takeaway
Creating materials that carry power perfectly without extreme cooling is a "holy grail" of physics. This discovery shows that nickel-based materials can reach these temperatures if they are put under immense pressure.
From the abstract
Lattice compression has emerged as a fundamental tuning parameter for nickelate superconductivity. Pressure acts as a trigger to induce superconductivity in bulk Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates. For infinite-layer nickelate thin films, compressive epitaxial strain and rare-earth ion chemical pressure have been used to substantially enhance the superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$). Efforts to go further have been constrained by the limits of epitaxial stability or the challenges of measuri