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Physicists Just Found the First Evidence That Superconductivity Can Be Left- or Right-Handed
• sciencealert.com by FIONA MACDONALDScientists have found the first evidence that superconductivity, one of the most intriguing and lucrative phenomena in physics, can be left- or right-handed. Or, more accurately, that superconducting materials can display chirality.
Chirality is frequently seen in nature - chiral materials are those that have mirror image versions of themselves that aren't identical, just like a left and a right hand. But until now, chirality and superconductivity - the ability for a material to transmit electricity with zero resistance - had never been found in the same material.
Now, an international team of researchers has observed a superconducting current flowing in only one direction through a chiral nanotube - the first observation of a chiral material acting as a superconductor.