I would like to raise a question of interest to many of us here today: “Why have we not been able to find a room-temperature superconductor?” I have a scenario for why not that can be illustrated by projecting ahead 98 years. It is 2089, the tercentenary of the French Revolution. The revolt against science that started building up in the last decade of the 20th century has reached a crescendo and a revolutionary tribunal has erected a huge guillotine. Following in the tradition of Lavoisier's trial and execution, the presidents of the Materials Research Society, the American Chemical Society, and the American Physical Society have been found to be enemies of the people and have been sentenced to be guillotined. The president of the Materials Research Society steps up. In his final words, he says: “I have no regrets. We've supplied you with the pole vaults which have made possible a new world's record above 30 feet, we've given you automobile bumpers that prevent damage in crashes at 60 miles per hour, and we've given you tennis rackets that are big enough to allow you to cover from center court to the alley without having to take a step.” With that, he bravely puts his head on the block. Down crashes the knife but inexplicably it stops just before it reaches his neck. According to the rules he steps down a free man. Then the American Chemical Society president steps up and says: “I don't have any regrets either. We have given you body centered cubic diamond that makes it possible to build indestructible houses, we have given you disposable diapers that are biodegradable in 30 seconds, and we've reseeded the stratosphere with ozone. We have done our job.” She courageously puts her head on the block, and the guillotine comes down. Again it stops short and she walks away, a free woman. Then the president of the American Physical Society says: “I don't have any regrets either. We've circled the equator with our newest SSC and have given you the Higgs boson, we've given you light that you can squeeze until it hurts, and we've discovered over 100 theoretical models which should lead to room-temperature superconductors. We haven't given you any real ones because there aren't any—we've tested all the possibilities. But, by the way, while we've been standing here, I've done a back-of-the-envelope calculation and I've found out wha's wrong with this guillotine. If you give me a screwdriver I can fix it.”
THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
