However, their reliance on extremely low temperatures has limited their practical applications. Now, scientists may be one step closer to breaking that barrier.

In groundbreaking research led by Professor Kostya Trachenko of the Queen Mary University of London, the maximum temperature at which superconductors can operate has been linked to fundamental constants of nature, such as the electron mass, electron charge, and the Planck constant.

These constants, essential for atomic stability and star formation, set the upper limit for superconducting temperatures between hundreds and a thousand Kelvin. Encouragingly, this range includes room temperature.