Superconductivity, a cold attraction

The Youtube channel Zeste de science explores all aspects of scientific research, proving that even the most complicated scientific facts can be explained in less than 5 minutes, and that even the most seemingly trivial events of everyday life, if thoroughly studied, can contribute to the biggest technological advances. Episode 19: Zeste de science presents a new episode of Ecorce de recherche, an immersion into archives of last century's scientific research. In 1964, the brand new…

On the 8th April 1911, whilst observing mercury at the temperature of liquid helium -269°C, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered a new and surprising physics phenomenon: superconductivity! This phenomenon is made apparent by two remarkable effects. Superconductors not only conduct an electric current perfectly, they also expel magnetic fields and make magnets levitate. A hundred years after its ' discovery, superconductivity still remains a huge enigma. Many laboratories are…

Some 90% of the digital information that exists today was created in the past two years! Data is generated at an increasingly fast rate and finding new materials able to capture this expanding digital world while using less energy has become a priority for many research laboratories around the world. The Jean Lamour Institute, in eastern France, has a state of the art nanotechnology equipment to take on this challenge...

Basic principles of the electromagnetic skin effect, explained with animations. Experiments show the applications in metallurgy.

Overview of the colloidal suspensions of magnetic particles known as ferrofluids: their constitution, general properties and applications.

Superconductors are materials that have zero resistivity below a certain critical temperature. The CNRS team at CRISMAT (crystallography and materials science laboratory), in Caen, present their work at the leading edge of research in this field.

Dirk Van Delft, director of the “Museum Boerhaave” of Leiden (Netherlands) tells how superconductivity was discovered in Heike kamerling Onnes ' Cryogenics laboratory. He contributes useful details about this historic day, and re establishes the truth about the team that observed this phenomenon. This film is a bonus accompanying “100% conductive : Superconductors”.

Overview of the colloidal suspensions of magnetic particles known as ferrofluids: their constitution, general properties and applications.

In 2010, André Geim and Konstantin Novoselo won the Nobel prize in Physics for their discovery of graphene, a two-dimensional material as flexible, light and sturdy as steel. This animation film is a presentation of the various possible applications of graphene, such as in mechanics and electronics.

On the Meudon Bellevue CNRS campus, you will find the first large instrument dedicated to fundamental research in France and in the world, the Large Electromagnet of the Academy of Sciences. It was imagined and designed by the physicist Aimé Cotton in 1928 and operated until the 1970s. Denis Guthleben, science historian, shares with us the various stages in the history of the large electromagnet, from the birth of the project before the 1914 war to its…

The large electromagnet was built for the Academy of Sciences, according to the plans drawn up by Professor Cotton and Mr. Mabboux, and with supporting funds from the National Pastor's Day subscription. After the machining phases carried out in the Saint-Ouen workshops of the French company Thomson-Houston, the 120-ton electromagnet was installed at the Office National des Recherches Scientifiques et Industrielles et des Inventions in Bellevue.

By bombarding a garnet with ions, one can create cylindrical magnetic fields known as bubbles. The movements of the bubbles can be controlled by acting on the magnetic field, and in this way bubble memories and circuits can be constructed.

The crystal is formed by small volume elements magnetized to saturation as a result of interactions between neighbouring spins that tend to align in parallel. These volume elements are called magnetic domains, the adjacent domains being separated by transition zones called block walls. The film aims to study the dynamics of these walls, i.e. their movements when the crystal is subjected to a magnetic field. The experimental study itself uses a metallographic microscope. The sample,…