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upon the electrical circuit.
While Onnes discovered superconductors 77 years ago, his discovery had little practical application since the conductors required temperatures of minus 453 degrees Fahrenheit. The breakthrough came in January 1986, when Bednorz and Mullen (IBM Zurich) achieved superconductivity at minus 396 degrees, earning themselves that Nobel Prize.
In a frenzy of international scientific competition, the threshold has been raised to minus 300 degrees just in the past few months.
So Rappahannock High School finds itself in an unusual spot: right on the cutting edge.
“It’s exciting for students to be able to work on something that everyone is reading about,” the physics teacher said, crediting Richard Tribino, a 1987 RCHS graduate who is majoring in science at George Mason University, with the idea for the experiment.
Following several weeks of planning and research, the work began on Dec. 28, when Mr. Patterson and his junior researchers gave up Christmas vacation and gathered early at the high school.
They measured exact proportions of barium nitrate, copper oxide and yttrium oxide, ground and mixed the chemicals thoroughly and then heated the mixture in the shop’s kiln until 11 p.m. that night. In four-hour shifts, the kids monitored the kiln’s temperature, which had to be maintained at 1,650 degrees.
The next morning, Mr. Patterson
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