Superconductivity & Mysticism

The idea of everlasting anything sounds incredible. When Superconductivity was proposed in the sixties even scientists were skeptical. Then they agreed that electric current could flow for long periods (10,000 years) at super low temperatures – zero degrees Kelvin. Semiconductor physicists started designing new material which exhibited superconductivity at temperatures a little higher than that. They found immediate application in medical equipment such as the MRI. A few years ago came the discovery that light can trigger superconductivity. It seemed that light was impacting the crystalline structure of a material. This week scientists have reported in the journal of Physical Review letters an even more interesting discovery. Superconductivity appears in a material even before its lattice structure changes and at temperatures close to normal.

Quantum phenomena have been accepted in the scientific community for a while but the possibility of them happening closer to the human body temperature had been left to the domain of the mystical. Scientists from Max Plank institute devised a smart experiment using SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator) to understand how light triggers superconductivity. Through their experiment they arrive at the conclusion that changes to the crystal structure of material are not the cause of superconductivity. Electrical charge between different layers of a conducting material arranged in a striped fashion is as the culprit. These charge stripes smooth out when intense light shines on them making the material superconducting. A small bit of explanation for the mystical!

Brian Josephson famous for his work in superconductivity and tunneling is the first Nobel Laureate to accept mysticism as an extension of science. After becoming familiar with mantra based meditation he proposed a controversial theory suggesting nature itself to be intelligent. Cutting edge research such as light triggered superconductivity explains new observations scientifically but pushes the conventional boundary between socially accepted science and quantum mysticism. Scientists have become more open to eastern mysticism while the society at large continues to believe in centuries old prejudices. Cold fusion and warm quantum fields which could explain the reason behind the mystical efficacy of many eastern practices is appearing more and more practical now.