Concerned about my science grade like many of the students in Aspen High School, I jumped at the chance to earn some extra credit. I was instructed to attend a lecture at the Wheeler Opera House at 5:30 on Wednesday, January 8, 2014. What I wasn’t expecting was the events that then unfolded at the Wheeler…

A tall, stark man with a classic mad-scientist hairdo and getup approached the stand and began the lecture on Superconductivity. His name is Louis Taillefer, and he is a physicist at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is also one of the leading physicists exploring the fields of Superconductivity and magnetism in relation to harnessing the power of electricity.

I’m sure that must sound like a foreign language to anyone new to the subject, as it still sounds unfamiliar to me. What I understood is that superconductivity is the science of conducting massive amounts of electricity efficiently without any resistance, and creating perpetual motion; a state of motion where something can move indefinitely without any force or external source of energy. It is an amazing theory but unfortunately cannot be enacted because of air friction and other basic forces of friction.

Superconductors today can be applied in couple of fields but only with some very inconvenient limitations, like using liquidated gases to cool the superconductor. The idea is if superconductors can be used at room temperature, it will revolutionize the way we use electricity every day. A superconductor can cleanly and efficiently conduct up to five times that of what copper wire can. Right now, superconductors are used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines, also known as MRI’s. When superconductors are placed in a magnetic field, they spontaneously gain magnetic properties and can be manipulated to scan images of the brain for patients in hospitals. Superconductors are also used to levitate the super trains in Japan using the same magnetic properties.

It is only a matter of time before a major breakthrough is made and the secret to revealing what compound can be used to conduct electricity through at room temperature is discovered. When this happens, massive amounts of solar energy from the Sahara can literally be harnessed to power most of Europe and other parts of the world. Hopefully, brilliant scientists like Louis Taillefer will continue working towards finding the perfect chemical equation to harness the power and electricity naturally existing on earth.