Science/Medicine : Research Aid Urged for Superconductors

It will take a 10-year national research program in superconductors to capitalize on the commercial potential of this new technology before other nations do, a National Academy of Sciences panel said.

The group recommended that the federal government proceed with plans to spend $100 million in fiscal 1988 on high-temperature superconductivity research. In addition, it said, the government could help U.S. industry meet the challenge of foreign competition in the field by enhancing industry-university cooperative programs, sharing the costs of demonstration projects and speeding transfer of information from national laboratories to business.

Superconductivity is the ability of a material to transmit electricity without the resistance that causes energy loss and excessive heating.

Practical application of the technology one day could lead to better computers, magnetically levitated trains and more efficient generation and transmission of electrical power, experts say.