Editorial introduction

Abstract

This special edition of Superconductor Science and Technology commemorates the tenth anniversary of the realization of superconductivity at liquid nitrogen temperatures. While the discovery of mixed-oxide superconductors by Bednorz and Müller was the greater scientific achievement, well deserving of a Nobel prize, the technological breakthrough was the fact that for many of these oxides the critical temperature was well above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. This promoted what might merely have been a scientific curiosity into a practical possibility. Past and present members of the editorial advisory board were invited to submit reviews of their specialitites for inclusion in this issue; the eight articles here are the results of that invitation.