A quantum highway just one atom high could transform superconductors

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorScientists have found that atomic steps just one atom high can guide quantum vortices through superconductors, ScienceDaily reports.

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   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorA kerb. They've built a kerb, and it's one atom tall, which is the sort of thing a council would approve without a consultation.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe vortices are tiny swirls of magnetic field inside the material, and they normally wander and waste energy.

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   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThese steps make them move more than a thousand times more easily in one direction than the other.

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   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorA thousand times. So it's a one-way street, and every one-way street I've ever met ended in a roundabout and a row.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA thousand times.

7. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThink it through.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorIf you can steer swirls with a step nobody can see, then someone, somewhere, will steer them wrongly, and there will be no signage whatsoever. I'd like to be wrong.

9. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorI never am.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe catch is that this is a discovery about how the vortices behave, so it's early science and not a product you can buy.

11. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSo the road exists, but nobody's built a car for it. Very British.

12. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorTiny swirls now have a road that works. Humans have only ever had roadworks.