The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered more than 90 years ago. The liquefaction of helium in 1907 was the first step in discovery. The possibility to cool materials to the temperature of liquefied helium (4.2 K or -269 Celsius) opened up new territories in the analysis of material parameters.
Heike Kammerlingh Onnes Dutch physicist later honoured by the Nobel prize analyzed electric resistance behaviour of materials at the temperature of liquefied helium. In 1911 he was analyzing metallic characteristics with his colleagues when one of his Ph. D. students said that mercury resistance could not be measured as the instrument keeps indicating zero. Onnes asked for new measurements but the student could not show results. Onnes got truly angry and threatened the student to be thrown out of the program, but finally, to show his competence he measured the sample personally...
...you can learn about the rest of the story and many curiosities at the exhibition.
In February 2003 "RTD info" the research journal of the European Union published its special journal on superconductivity and the future of superconductivity. You can see below a selection of interesting articles:
The exhibition is supported by EU Programme "Science and Society".
The project partners are the following: