BCS theory

He asserts that Hirsch isn’t an expert in high-pressure physics and that he has a history of claiming that the Nobel Prize–winning “BCS theory” underlying superconductivity is incorrect.

It means that I am motivated to scrutinize carefully the experimental evidence and judge it on its merits, as opposed to assuming it is likely to be right because BCS theory predicts it to be right, as everybody else does.”

Hirsch counters that his belief that the BCS theory is incorrect “does not mean I am ‘biased’ or not ‘impartial.’

Their “BCS theory” suggested an electron whizzing through a superconducting metal deforms the material’s atomic lattice, drawing positive atomic nuclei toward it ever so slightly.

Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911 by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in a mercury wire chilled to 4.2° above absolute zero, or 4.2 K. In 1957, physicists John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer explained the phenomenon: Their “BCS theory” suggested an electron zipping through a superconductor temporarily deforms the material’s structure, pulling another electron behind in its wake without resistance.