How strange metals are forcing physicists to rethink the nature of electricity
This article explores the decades-old mystery of "strange metals" — materials discovered in the 1980s that conduct electricity in ways that defy conventional physics. Unlike normal metals where electrical resistance follows predictable patterns, strange metals exhibit bizarre behavior such as resistance scaling linearly with temperature. The piece examines how physicists are now developing new theories to explain this phenomenon, which is forcing a fundamental rethinking of how electricity works at the quantum level. The discovery of high-temperature superconductors sparked a scientific frenzy, and the ongoing research into strange metals is challenging long-held assumptions about electron behavior and electrical conduction.
Key quotes
In the mid-1980s, an unexpected discovery sparked one of the most frenzied episodes in scientific history.
The finding in question was of materials that turned into superconductors – materials that conducted electricity with zero resistance – at much higher temperatures than had ever been seen before.
Almost overnight, labs the world over shelved their existing research programmes and jumped on the bandwagon to find other examples.
Newspapers heralded an impending age of lossless power transmission, floating trains and extraordinary possibilities.
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