discovered 02_2012

FOCUS// The HZDR Research Magazine WWW.Hzdr.DE 08 09 DANCE FLOOR: One of five magnet cells at the HZDR’s Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Superconductivity experiments are performed here. Image credit: Uwe Tölle _TEXT . Roland Knauer When electrons PAIR UP and troublemakers are forced into A corner // Strong magnetic fields have an effect on superconductors that was already predicted back in 1964. Joachim Wosnitza of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden- Rossendorf and Peter Fulde, Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPIPKS) in Dresden share the same problem with many physicists in materials science: The applied physicist from the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory can understand the MPIPKS theoretician perfectly, whereas non-physicists listening to conversations between the two researchers would have difficulty following. Needless to say, when Joachim Wosnitza and his colleagues conducted a refined experiment and found significant proof for an effect Peter Fulde had already predicted back in 1964, both scientists and their colleagues were delighted. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the headlines in the Saxon metropolis because this kind of research is highly complex. It concerns a topic, however, that should interest the general public in times of Germany’s energy turnaround: How can we conduct electric currents without energy dissipation? Translation . Sarah Gwillym-Margianto

discovered 02_2012

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