Imagine phones and laptops that never heat up or power grids that never lose energy. This is the dream of scientists working with so-called high-temperature superconductors, which can effortlessly carry electrical currents with no resistance. The first high-temperature superconducting materials, called cuprates, were discovered in the 1980s and would later be the subject of a Nobel Prize. The term “high-temperature” is relative—these materials operate at frosty temperatures of up to minus 135 degrees Celsius, a bit higher than their traditional counterparts, which work at even chillier temperatures near absolute zero (minus 273 degrees Celsius).