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Nature Physics 4, 446 (1 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphys976

Superconductivity: Has lightning struck twice?

May Chiao

John Bardeen, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on 23 May, was the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in physics — one for the transistor and the other for the microscopic explanation of superconductivity, known as the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory (BCS). For about 30 years, all superconductors more or less behaved according to BCS, none of them violating the predicted 30 K maximum transition temperature Tc.