Faster electronics, better communication devices, more efficient ways to store data are just some of the outcomes that the researchers can think of - if magnetite’s puzzle of hidden powers could be figured out. Eventually, it lead to new ways to manipulate materials and improving electronics by harnessing the behavior of their electrons.

Northeastern researchers are probing a class of copper-based materials that can be turned into superconductors. Their findings offer tantalizing clues for a decades-old mystery, and a step forward for quantum computing.

Bismuth was long thought to be an ordinary metallic crystal, but groundbreaking research by physics professor Arun Bansil and his colleagues predicts it is in fact a highly efficient topological insulator, and it could be the answer to building supercomputers that don't overheat.

In a paper published recently in Communications Physics, a Nature publication, Bansil and his colleagues describe a discovery that brings us closer to that elusive feat—what he described as the “holy grail” of the field. For the first time, researchers were able to model the behavior of electrons, which are responsible for superconductors’ ability to conduct electricity.