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Leon N. Cooper, Nobel physicist who probed superconductivity, dies at 94
Leon N. Cooper, Nobel physicist who probed superconductivity, dies at 94
A three-member team in the 1950s cracked a mystery that had baffled thinkers such as Albert Einstein.
Leon N. Cooper in 1972 after the announcement that he and two colleagues received the Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in superconductivity. (Bettmann Archive/Getty)
By Brian Murphy
October 30, 2024 at 4:23 p.m. EDT
Leon N. Cooper, a Nobel laureate physicist whose work on subatomic anomalies helped explain why electricity can flow without resistance in hyper-cold conditions, boosting the dream of one day bringing superconductivity to power grids and computing, died Oct. 23 at his home in Providence, Rhode Island. He was 94. ... The death was announced by Brown University, where Dr. Cooper had been on the faculty for more than five decades. No cause was noted.
The discoveries by Dr. Cooper and two colleagues that led to the Nobel Prize in physics in 1972 opened the way for superconductivity in selected fields — creating powerful magnets used for magnetic resonance imaging in medicine and in particle accelerators to probe nanosecond phenomena in physics.
Yet the ultimate prize of “room temperature” conductivity remains elusive. Such a breakthrough — if possible — could underpin advances such as ultraefficient power transmission, expansion of magnetic-levitation train technology and massive leaps in computing speed. ... “It’s like we started out to build a car and along the way invented the wheel,” recounted Dr. Cooper at a conference in 2008. ... Scientists knew for decades what happened when substances such as mercury were cooled to temperatures approaching absolute zero, or minus 459.6 degrees, where virtually all particle motion ceases. Electrical current passes through with no resistance, theoretically able to continue indefinitely at the same strength.
What scientists couldn’t discern was why. The quandary had baffled the greatest minds in physics including Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman. Joining the hunt in the 1950s was John Bardeen, a University of Illinois physicist who was already a scientific celebrity for helping develop the transistor at Bell Labs in the late 1940s that would revolutionize electronics. (Bardeen and two colleagues shared the Nobel Prize in 1956 for the transistor work.)
{snip}
A three-member team in the 1950s cracked a mystery that had baffled thinkers such as Albert Einstein.
Leon N. Cooper in 1972 after the announcement that he and two colleagues received the Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in superconductivity. (Bettmann Archive/Getty)
By Brian Murphy
October 30, 2024 at 4:23 p.m. EDT
Leon N. Cooper, a Nobel laureate physicist whose work on subatomic anomalies helped explain why electricity can flow without resistance in hyper-cold conditions, boosting the dream of one day bringing superconductivity to power grids and computing, died Oct. 23 at his home in Providence, Rhode Island. He was 94. ... The death was announced by Brown University, where Dr. Cooper had been on the faculty for more than five decades. No cause was noted.
The discoveries by Dr. Cooper and two colleagues that led to the Nobel Prize in physics in 1972 opened the way for superconductivity in selected fields — creating powerful magnets used for magnetic resonance imaging in medicine and in particle accelerators to probe nanosecond phenomena in physics.
Yet the ultimate prize of “room temperature” conductivity remains elusive. Such a breakthrough — if possible — could underpin advances such as ultraefficient power transmission, expansion of magnetic-levitation train technology and massive leaps in computing speed. ... “It’s like we started out to build a car and along the way invented the wheel,” recounted Dr. Cooper at a conference in 2008. ... Scientists knew for decades what happened when substances such as mercury were cooled to temperatures approaching absolute zero, or minus 459.6 degrees, where virtually all particle motion ceases. Electrical current passes through with no resistance, theoretically able to continue indefinitely at the same strength.
What scientists couldn’t discern was why. The quandary had baffled the greatest minds in physics including Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman. Joining the hunt in the 1950s was John Bardeen, a University of Illinois physicist who was already a scientific celebrity for helping develop the transistor at Bell Labs in the late 1940s that would revolutionize electronics. (Bardeen and two colleagues shared the Nobel Prize in 1956 for the transistor work.)
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