On the news about a decade ago they were talking a lot about high temperature superconductors.  They were talking about superconductors of electricity.  Are there other types of superconductors, like maybe a superconductor of heat, or a superconductor of sound, or a superconductor of light?
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Superconductors conduct electricity with little or no resistance. Organic superconductors contain carbon and are less dense than their ceramic or metallic counterparts; they also offer unusual potential for fine-tuning of electrical properties. Argonne National Laboratory long has carried out the major U.S. effort to synthesize and identify organic superconductors. Nearly 100 new superconductors of this type have been produced, with critical temperatures (at which a superconductor loses all electrical resistance) as high as -260 degrees C, or -434 degrees F. Recently, the first superconductor composed entirely of organic components (with no metal atoms) was synthesized, with a transition temperature in this range. Although this remains far lower than the highest known transition temperature for ceramics, scientists still expect that a high-temperature organic superconductor may be possible, such that liquid nitrogen (at -196 degrees C, or -321 degrees F) could be used as the coolant instead of the more costly liquid helium, thus making practical applications more feasible. The new compound has a two-dimensional, layered structure, which may provide significant insight into the nature of superconductivity.
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1st -- tips of the hat to in-janier and lewis_brown for stopping by long enough to give the basic physics and most of all to Lewis for politely informing us that glass is not a liquid.  \n\nGlass is a liquid?  Pull-eeze!  How in the world do you come up with that one, people?  \n\nGlass "flows" -- ???  \n\nGlass flows in liquid state -- only.\n\nGlass is solid until melted.  Then and only then it's liquid.\n\nGlass melts at 2600-2900 °F (1425-1600 °C) depending on its composition.\n\nWhere on Earth do you think glass is liquid or flows at bench temperature?\n\nAnway, I originally stopped by just to ask the asker if he or she could see through black glass (or any other opaque glass)?
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Different materials conduct heat at different rates.\n\nMetal, for example, is generally an excellent conductor of heat, meaning that when you place your hand on a metal doorknob, the metal conducts heat away from your hand at a much higher rate than of you were to grab an object made of less conductive material, such as wood.  The sensation you're calling "cool" or "cold" is simply heat being conducted away from your skin.  \n\nRemember, just as darkness is nothing more than the absence of light, cold is nothing more than the absence of heat.  So when you're touching a cold object, nothing is being imparted to your skin; all you're feeling is the heating leaving.\n\nRegards,\n\nKevinb671, Ph.D.\nSertufied Science Person
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increasing thickness, decreasing temperature, and decreasing length would all reduce the resistance of a metal wire. so the only thing that reduces it by increasing is thickness.\n\na good way to remember this is just to reason it out. if the wire is thicker, current can move more freely and with less resistance then a thinner, more constricted wire. the electrons in the current would have more space to move around.  if you increase temperature, it would cause more resistance, because with temperature, comes heat, and heat just makes more resistance. lower temperatures allow the current to move more freely, which is why superconductors work really well at low temperatures. and length, well the longer the wire is, the more the resistance is going to build up along the whole thing... the electrons are just encountering more resistance because the wire is longer..
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Yeah man...light is one of the most energetic forms that we witness. Light actually has many types of energy, just like most other things. \n\n1) Photons of light (of a suitable frequency are capable of imparting enough momentum to an electron in a metal so that the electron leaves the metal's surface. This is known as the photoelectric effect and the credit for it's knowledge goes to Mr.Einstein.\n\n2) Light has heat energy, and therefore thermodynamic value. You'll see that if you stand in the sun too long, you will be hot. \n\n3) The thermodynamic energy of light causes photochemical reactions, such as the radicalisation of halogen atoms, or the redox reactions of alkyl halides. \n\nI cannot be too sure of my satisfaction quotient with this answer because your question overlays so many fundamental concepts of light. For example, you wouldn't ask a rolling ball, "Excuse me sir, but how much energy do you really have?" The ball will snicker because you have not specified WHAT KIND OF ENERGY you want from the ball. Now, if you were to ask, "Excuse me sir, what is your KINETIC energy?", the ball would happily answer that it would be half of its mass multiplied by the square of its velocity. \n\nOne of the kinds of energy does involve a mass parameter and that would be the photoelectrical energy of light. This energy functions on the sound premise that linear and angular momentum are conserved, and since light has dual (mass-wave) nature, this kind of energy does involve mass. \n\nWe know that the energy of a photon of frequency v is E=hv where h is Planck's constant. We also know that the energy of a photon in relation to its mass is E=mc^2. THus we can say:\n\nmc^2 = hv.\n\nAll right, here is a clear answer, which I just realized. \n\nOne photon of light has the above mentioned amount of energy, and therefore a ray of light will have the energy of how many ever photons are in the ray of light. \n\nSo for n photons, energy of the ray of light is nhv. \n\nNow THIS nhv can be CONVERTED into all of the forms mentioned above. Light has energy which is capable of doing different kinds of work. \n\nForgive me for the error of thinking that light has different forms of energy. It has one form of energy which can be CONVERTED into different forms of energy. Phew....\n\nI really must thank you as this was a learning process for me too.\n\nAyerhs.
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The short answer is no, a circuit cannot absorb heat. \n\nElectrons don't know which way they are flowing in a wire, and there will always be an ohmic loss. One exception is with superconducting materials, in which case electrical current flow does not generate heat, and its flow is essentially lossless.\n\nHaving said that, there are devices called thermoelectric coolers that work on the Peltier effect. These devices are constructed with chunks of material assembled between two plates, typically made of ceramic. \n\nThe device operates by creating a termperature difference between the two surfaces when you run a DC current through it.\n\nWhen electrical current is run through the material in one direction, it causes one plate to get cold, and the other to get hot. If you run the current in the other direction, the opposite effect occurs. The hot plate now gets cold, and the cold plate now gets  hot.\n\nUsually, current is run in one direction only. The hot surface is attached to a big heatsink to actually prevent it from getting too warm. This causes the cold plate to get even colder.  But even with that, the hot side gets hotter than the cold side gets cold. That is, there is a net consumption of electrical power which gets dissipated as heat throughout the overall circuit.\n\nBut this is also true of a kitchen refrigerator, which also gets cold when electricity is run through the device. (Don't forget though that the cooling coils on the back of the refrigerator get hot.). A TE cooler is simply a solid state refrigerator.\n\nThere are no devices that inherently get colder when electrical current flows through them.\n\nHope this helps,\n\n-Guru
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To answer your actual question - nobody knows.\n\nLike "charge", and "magnetism" it remains one of the fundamental mysteries of the universe.
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Nope. Ben just got it wrong.\n\nWhen he came up with "positive" and "negative" he wasn't even thinking in terms of current they way we do today. Frankline did have an "fluid theory" of electricity, but it was much different in scope with anything we would think of. It was not until 1897 that the electron was discovered.\n\nSo, Ben, can be forgiven. When he was working he wrote in a letter that "I feel a Want of Terms here and doubt much whether I shall be able to make this intelligible," and he supposed to have come up with a variety of terms in use today:     \n\n    * battery\n    * charge\n    * condensor\n    * conductor\n    * plus\n    * minus\n    * positively\n    * negatively\n    * armature\n\nUsing a positve flow is useful in that it keeps a lot of the quantities positive. (Though I confess, in Physics grad school we always used the electrons moving bit.)\n\nAlso moving protons are good if one wants to use special relativity to show that electricy and magnetism are the same.
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Considering you said 0 degrees without specifying Fahrenheit or Celcius, it seems you don't know much about science.  If the compounds are "no longer active on the molecular level" you're talking about 0 Kelvins, which are not degrees.  There's no such thing as zero degrees Kelvin.  I don't see why you're convinced that electricity would make any difference.  Put simply, the answer to your question is currently No.  Maybe someday we can have some sort of hibernation, but it will probably include hormones or something, not just zapping you.
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deathly electric? electricity may be deadly ...\na kiss can be electric...\nocean current, current events...
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Actually your mineral dealer is right.  In any crystalline structure there are vibrations that physicists refer to as phonons.  It is a quantum effect.  If you are generally interested, look into solid state physics.  But this is not unique to mineral crystals, metals which also have a crystalline structure do the same thing, in fact anything with a crystalline structure.  \n\nThese phonons are responsible for transferring of thermal energy and are also responsible for metals expanding  when heated.  You can even have groups of atoms vibrate together at acoustic frequencies and these are called acoustic phonons.  Phonons exhibit the same wave/particle duality of other quantum effects, like photons.\n\nCan these phonons communicate with you body.  I doubt it.  Phonons are generally reflected when they hit the surface of a crystal.  Even if they did manage to make their way to your body, you would need something to match the frequency or the energy would be lost as heat.  There are also phonons on the surface called...you guessed it, surface phonons.  \n\nNo matter what type of phonon, you would need something that could vibrate at that specific frequency or the energy would be dispersed as heat.  In addition I find it hard to believe that the energy from these phonons is large enough to really do anything physiologically.
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Hey check this out, I guess there are 7 states.\n\nThese phases include gases, plasmas, liquids, fluids, superfluids, solids, and Bose-Einstein condensates.\n\nSorry about all the rephrasing.
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i'M IN SIXTH GRADE, AND A GOOD SCIENCE FAIR TOPIC WOULD BE "WHICH SUBSTANCE CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY BEST". iT IS REALLY EASY TO DO AND YOU CAN HAVE LOTS OF GRAPHS. FOR EXAMPLE I HAVE 21 GRAPHS. AND MY WHOLE ENTIRE BOOK IS 93 PAGES LONG. \n\nHOPE i HELP YA!!
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The highest critical temperature (Tc) for a superconductor achieved so far is: 150 K (-123 C) for a certain unknown (unconfirmed) phase of InSnBa4Tm3Cu5Ox material (February 2005). \nSee: http://superconductors.org/InSn_Tm3.htm\nHowever, the confirmed value of highest Tc (without pressure) is: 138 K (-135 C) for \n(Hg0.8Tl0.2)Ba2Ca2Cu3O8.33 superconductor. For a list of superconductors and their Tc's, see: http://superconductors.org/type2.htm\n[With pressure, Tc can be increased upto about 160 K.]\nNow the second part of your question: 'Energy is not lost' doesn't mean that it increases (and increases to infinity!). It means there is no resistive or other losses of energy, so the (electrical) energy in a superconductor can remain there for an infinite period of time (at least theoretically)!
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Your first paragraph is quite true. Tesla patented various methods for transmitting power using large resonators with local "receivers."  If you have a resonant cavity you can get pretty good coupling between source and receiver (microwave oven for example).  The general use for power distribution has its problems, not least of which is how do you charge($) the receiver?\n\nThe analogy of sympathetic vibration is valid.\n\nNot sure what to make of the magnetism bit.\n\nElectrons resonate - they may in fact be "resonances"\n\nOur entire electrical power system is based on Electricity and Magnetism so I think the answer is yes we can pick up energy.\n\nWhat may be missing is that we also have to provide the energy up front before we get to pick it up!
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Alternative forms of energy are very much in the news. I think that would go over well. Start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_electricity  and go from there.
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http://science.howstuffworks.com/electricity.htm