Letters

I read with interest the article on recent U.S. and Chinese policies and their possible impact on Nobel-quality research (The Scientist, May 30,1988, page 1). Mr. Reed presented an insightful look at Chinese scientists in U.S. universities.

The facts surrounding the breakthrough in superconductivity last year have been confused by the media, however, and I am writing to clarify the history of the event. It is all the more interesting in the context of Mr. Reed’s article in that my clarification involves another foreign scientist, this time a citizen of Taiwan.

The actual discovery of the first material to become superconducting in liquid nitrogen was wrongly attributed to Professor Paul Chu of the University of Houston. The discovery was made on January 29, 1987, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr. M.K. Wu and his students came to the decision to try the Y-Ba-Cu-0 material based on some ideas...