Under certain conditions – such as bone-brittling temperatures lower than that of deep space – superconductors can conduct electricity without resistance and resultant energy loss.

Though they vary in their chemical composition, operational temperature ranges, and magnetic properties, superconductors come in two groupings.

First, conventional and unconventional superconductors differ in how their electrons become entangled in tandems called Cooper pairs, an identity-sharing state that allows them to gracefully glide through the atomic jumble of their materials to facilitate uninterrupted electric flow.