From ultra-fast bullet trains to new-age medical equipment, superconductors could fundamentally change society. In the U.S. alone, about six percent of electricity passing through a typical power grid in a year is lost and becomes heat, which costs billions of dollars.

From ultra high speed levitating trains to lifesaving MRI machines, superconductors are key to some of the world’s most cutting edge technology. But they require extremely low temperatures to work and have remained too expensive for everyday use. Now that could be about to change. With superconductors that work at room temperature, our technological ability is posed to make a giant leap forward.

An international study published in August opens a new route to high-temperature supercurrents at temperatures as ‘warm’ as inside a kitchen fridge.

Superconductors are best known for their ability to conduct electricity without resistance, but these exotic materials could only be produced artificially and function under specific conditions like certain temperature or pressure. Their demand is high with the reliance of futuristic quantum computing technology upon them.

A team of physicists in New York has discovered a material that conducts electricity with perfect efficiency at room temperature—a long-sought scientific milestone. The hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur compound operates as a superconductor at up to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the team reported in Nature. That’s more than 50 degrees higher than the previous high-temperature superconductivity record, set last year.

A UNLV professor is getting accolades for a research milestone that could have major implications for energy efficiency.

The long-sought goal of finding a superconductor that works at room temperature has been achieved, showing promise for future applications in personal electronics and other technologies, researchers say.

It’s the kind of discovery scientists wait a lifetime for. The kind that, with a little - or a lot - more work, could completely change the world as we know it.