Electrical superball pulls itself together

A strong electric field can drive tiny particles of a superconductor to bind themselves together into a remarkably sturdy ball about 0.25 millimeter across.

Scanning electron micrograph of a ball, 0.25 mm in diameter, made up of closely packed particles of the superconductor bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide. Tao et al./Phys. Rev. Lett.

Rongjia Tao of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and his collaborators report this surprising phenomenon in the Dec.