Among the most peculiar of matters behaviors is superconductivity¾ electric current without resistance. Since the 1986 discovery that superconductivity is possible at temperatures well above absolute zero, research into practical applications has flourished.

The Cold Wars tells the history of superconductivity, providing perspective on the development of the field and its relationship with the rest of physics. Superconductivity offers an excellent example of the evolution of physics in the twentieth century: the science itself, its foundations, and its social context. The authors also introduce the reader to the fascinating scientific personalities, including 2003 Nobel Prize winners Alexei Alexeievich Abrikosov and Vitali Ginzburg, and political struggles behind this research.

The Cold Wars will be of interest to students of physics and the history of science, and to general readers interested in the story behind this remarkable phenomenon.

Jean Matricon taught physics at the Université Denis Diderot (Paris VII), where he conducted theoretical research on superconductivity and other topics in condensed matter physics. Georges Waysand has focused his experimental research on superconductivity, most recently at the Université Denis Diderot (Paris VII), and at an underground physics laboratory he has begun in Rustrel, France. Charles Glashausser is a professor of physics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and former chair of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society.