Educational Media Reviews Online

This program makes the science of superconductivity accessible to high school students. As the narrator states: "even a high school student like yourself has as much chance as anyone to understand what superconductivity is... and what it will mean to your future.” The program highlights the facilities and staff at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. Professor C.W. Chu, Director of the facility and a well-known researcher in high temperature superconductivity is featured.

Superconductivity is defined and the methods used to measure a material's conductivity are explained. Dr. Chu emphasizes that, to study a material's superconductivity, it is important to understand basic concepts of physics and chemistry. The program goes on to do just that. It describes atomic structure, how atoms interact to form bonds, crystal structures, why a current may or may not pass through a material's crystal structure, and the effects of temperature on resistivity within the material. Verbal explanations of these concepts by the scientists featured in the film are not always helpful but the portions in which a narrator and computer graphics take over are well done.

A bit of a who's who in superconductivity research is given including J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alexander Müller who won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of superconductivity in ceramics. What is nice about this video is that it shows professionals, graduate students, undergraduates and high school students all working together at the University of Houston Science Center to learn more about superconductors. While it is a bit self-serving, this film is still well-made and will help its audience consider a career in the chemical, physical, or engineering fields. Lower division undergraduates will benefit from this program as well.