Lewis Wolpert: 'If we can understand superconductors, the economic implications are unbelievable'

Perhaps the skills required to do theoretical physics are in the genes. Matthew Fisher's father Michael and his uncle (also Matthew), are both brilliant and famous physicists. He tried to avoid following the same path and started with engineering, even entertaining the hope of becoming a professional sportsman. But genes seem to have won out, and by 32 he had become a professor of physics.

He is trying to understand superconductivity. Even I can just understand that electricity flows in conducting materials such as metals because electrons flow along the wires. Conducting materials allow the flow of electrons much better than others. But even in good conductors there is still resistance to the flow, and this puts a heavy cost in energy in power lines that deliver electricity across the country.

In 1911, a remarkable discovery was made in relation to the conductivity of electricity – superconductivity. Certain materials, such as lead and tin, when cooled near to absolute zero (4 degrees Kelvin, or about 270C below the freezing point of water) can conduct electricity with almost no resistance. If this could occur at much higher temperatures to avoid the energy costs of all that cooling, the possibilities were enormous.

The mechanism for these metals was worked out by the late 1950s; it involves the electrons pairing up, so they like each other and they all do the same thing. Then, in 1986, a new class of superconductors was discovered: the cuprates, so called because their atomic constituents contain copper and oxygen. They were superconducting at much higher temperatures – around 130C below freezing – and they are now quite widely used in magnets for scanning patients. But what is it that gives them this property? About 100,000 publications on the topic have appeared in the past 17 years. And just what those electrons are doing is what Matthew Fisher's mind is focused on.

The theory of quantum mechanics, developed in the 1920s, can provide good explanations of the behaviour of solid materials – particularly the behaviour of the electrons that surround the nuclei of the atoms of which the solid is made – and could nicely explain the difference between conductors and insulators. But the behaviour of cuprates remains a mystery, and at least a hundred scientists are working on the theory.

Some of them think that the devil, and the answer, is in the details and there is nothing special to be understood. The optimists, on the other hand, believe that something qualitatively new needs to be discovered, some wonderful hidden simplicity. Since the advent of quantum mechanics, it has been possible to write down the equations that could solve the problem, but they cannot be solved – there are just too many electrons interacting with each other! All the computers in the world could not deal with them.

So Fisher has tried a different approach. Three years ago he developed a new scenario with testable predictions, but when the experiments were done it turned out to be wrong. Extremely disappointed, he left the problem for a year and then – as he put it – he stumbled on to a new approach. This is what he is pursuing with quite some hope, if not confidence. At the moment he is preparing a paper related to the subject that contains more than 300 equations. Every day he gives much time to considering the implications and tries to make new predictions. It is a mixture of think, talk and play, and making toy models.

The implications of understanding why cuprates are superconducting are enormous. It could open up the possibility of making new materials that would superconduct at much higher temperatures, even at room temperature, so that no cooling whatsoever would be required.

For the transmission of electricity and for transport using electric current, the economic and technological advantages are unbelievable. I hope he solves it.

Lewis Wolpert is professor of biology as applied to medicine at University College, London