However, John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer did come up with a theory for how the very coldest superconductors work, known as the BCS theory. In such materials, at low temperatures, the atoms vibrate in a way that forces the moving electrons closer together. Normally electrons don't like to huddle so close, since they're all electrically negative and therefore repel each other. But in superconductors, the electrons actually achieve almost an attraction for each other. The result is that as one electron moves, it pulls the next electron along right behind it.
Electrons slip from atom to atom more easily than they ever do normally.
Atoms which, at the right temperature, can make electrons attract instead of repel each other are superconductors. No portion of this web site may be reproduced without written permission. All Rights Reserved.