Inventions and Discoveries Out of Time — What might still be missing? Did you know that Magnesium Diboride (MgB2) was first synthesized in 1953 and that it was discovered that it superconducts at a temperature of 39K in 2001? So why does that matter, you might think. It’s just an obscure compound of little interest. However, it could have been made, and this property discovered, over 100 years ago. The fact that up until the 1980s the temperature record holder for any superconducting material was about half that of MgB2 makes it rather interesting. Something rather important to science was missed for decades. What else has been overlooked? Well, in the superconductor arena the biggie was the discovery in the 1980s of the Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide superconductors whose transition temperature was higher than 77K, which was revolutionary. However, we can let off those careless physicists for missing these because it took a dedicated almost random search to find them. Nevertheless,...
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