[R. N. Boyd]:

The room temperature superconductor is due to the "egg-crate" structure of the magnesium in the material. This structure creates the equivalent of narrow-line-width conductive channels which force electron spin-pair coupling.

There are a number of other room-temperature superconductors, such as quasi-crystals and spinnels that include magnesium. All of these compounds have either enhanced electrical or magnetic conduction properties due to the "egg-crate" spacing of some or all of their constituent elements.

Room temperature superconductivity is nothing new. R. Burgoine patented a method of creating room temperature superconducting filaments made from bismuth in the 1970's, but few have heard of this.

Novellus Corporation of California was producing wafer scale integrated circuits, which were superconducting at room temperature during the late 1980's. The Novellus patent was purchased by IBM Corporation about 1989. IBM has just sat on it ever since. The basis of their fabrication technique was, again, forced production of Cooper pairing in narrow conduction channels.

The difference here, may be that Japan may intend to market this technology, while repressive market-driven influences in countries such as the US, have prohibited any such commercial application on any large scale, in such as the US.

Watch out folks! Japan may become, if it is not already, the most technologically advanced nation on Earth, if it is not already... This has happened because Japan places its national interests ahead of its corporate interests.

>cynically<...What an unusual concept!