When traditional superconductors are cooled to nearly absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ­452 degrees Fahrenheit), pairs of negatively charged electrons exchange packets of vibrational energy known as phonons. This mechanism overcomes the repulsion of the like-charged particles and allows them to move together to carry electrical current with virtually no resistance. But the mechanism for superconductivity in
the high-temperature cuprates -- which act as superconductors at temperatures as "warm" as 138 K -- is still one of the "hottest" mysteries in condensed matter physics. Above the superconducting transition temperature the cuprates do not exhibit normal electronlike behavior, so it's unclear either how or what is pairing
to carry the current.

With the discovery of a new class of oxide superconductors, the cobaltates (which become superconducting at a temperature around 5 K), scientists were naturally curious whether they could learn something about their mechanism to shed light upon this problem. "What we've found," says Brookhaven physicist Peter Johnson, "has opened up another twist."

As Johnson's group cooled the cobalt-oxide materials, they observed electronlike excitations at temperatures well above the so-called transition temperature where the materials become superconductors. "If we had discovered these before we discovered the cuprates we'd probably think the same electron pairing mechanism was responsible for all superconductivity," Johnson says.