Superconductors give us sci-fi-worthy technologies like levitating trains, Big-Bang-replicating particle colliders, and medical machines that reveal our innermost secrets – thankfully only the physiological ones and not, perhaps, a secret love of polka dance.

But superconducting states are fragile. Materials must be cooled to very low temperatures, approaching the dark frigidity of outer space, to conduct electricity without resistance and subsequent energy loss.

The strength of the electrical current and of external magnetic fields can also snap these materials out of their superconducting states, as a curious cat’s whisker or mistimed sneeze can knock down a precarious series of dominos.