US SAYS KEY TO CHEAPER POWER DISCOVERED WASHINGTON -- PHYSICISTS IN HOUSTON AND ALABAMA HAVE ACHIEVED A BREAKTHROUGH IN SUPERCONDUCTIVITY RESEARCH THAT POINTS TO DRAMATICALLY MORE EFFICIENT AND CHEAPER ELECTRICAL POWER, THE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY. THE RESEARCHERS, AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, HAVE ACHIEVED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY -- THE ABILITY TO TRANSPORT ELECTRICAL CURRENT WITH NO RESISTANCE -- AT A TEMPERATURE SO HIGH THAT IT COULD BE CALLED A BREAKTHROUGH, SAID THE GOVERNMENT'S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. THE RESEARCHERS REACHED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AT 283 DEGREES BELOW ZERO FAHRENHEIT, WHICH IN THIS SCIENCE IS PRACTICALLY TROPICAL. THE MEASUREMENT IS ALMOST 100 DEGREES WARMER THAN THE MARK SET LESS THAN TWO MONTHS AGO. WHEN SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IS ACHIEVED, ELECTRICITY CAN TRAVEL FARTHER WITH GREATER EFFICIENCY. AFTER ITS DISCOVERY IN 1911, SCIENTISTS BELIEVED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY ONLY OCCURRED WHEN MATERIALS WERE KEPT CLOSE TO ABSOLUTE ZERO, OR MINUS 459.7 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, THE TEMPERATURE AT WHICH THE NORMAL MOTION OF MOLECULES CEASES. FOR DECADES, RESEARCHERS HAVE EXPERIMENTED WITH NEW CONDUCTING MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES IN ATTEMPTS TO RAISE THE TEMPERATURE TO MINUS 321 DEGREES, A POINT AT WHICH CHEAPER AND EASIER-TO-USE COOLANTS COULD BE EMPLOYED FOR PRACTICAL USES. TEAMS HEADED BY PAUL C.W. CHU AT HOUSTON AND M.K. WU AT ALABAMA FINALLY SURPASSED THAT THRESHOLD, SAID THE FOUNDATION, WHICH CO-SPONSORED THE WORK. RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE JOURNAL PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, IT ADDED. CHU'S GROUP PREVIOUSLY ACHIEVED TEMPERATURE RECORDS BY SUBJECTING CONDUCTOR MATERIALS TO HIGH PRESSURE WHILE COOLING THEM. IN THE LATEST WORK, THE COLLABORATIVE TEAMS USED NEW ALLOYS AND TECHNIQUES TO RAISE THE TEMPERATURE UNDER NORMAL ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, SAID THE ANNOUNCEMENT. UNTIL NOW, EXPENSIVE AND HARD-TO-HANDLE LIQUID HELIUM HAD TO BE USED TO COOL THE CONDUCTORS. IN THE NEW WORK, THE RESEARCHERS ACCOMPLISHED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY WITH WARMER LIQUID NITROGEN. LIQUID NITROGEN, WHICH HAS A TEMPERATURE OF MINUS 321 DEGREES, IS 10 TIMES CHEAPER AND 20 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE AS A COOLANT THAN LIQUID HELIUM, THE FOUNDATION SAID. THE ABILITY TO USE THIS MATERIAL SHOULD GREATLY SPEED DEVELOPING PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS FOR THE TECHNOLOGY, EXPERTS SAY. CHU AND OTHER EXPERTS SAID SUPERCONDUCTIVITY COULD HAVE MANY PRACTICAL USES IF PERFECTED. LARGE-SCALE APPLICATIONS COULD INCLUDE GENERATING AND SENDING ELECTRICITY FROM PLANTS FAR AWAY FROM USERS, BECAUSE NO ENERGY WOULD BE LOST IN TRANSMISSION. OTHER USES COULD INCLUDE MAKING MORE POWERFUL ELECTROMAGNETS TO RUN LEVITATED TRAINS AND POWER NEW GENERATIONS OF ''ATOM SMASHERS'' FOR PHYSICISTS, AS WELL AS IMPROVED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING SYSTEMS FOR MEDICINE. ON A SMALLER SCALE, THEY ADDED, THE TECHNOLOGY COULD REVOLUTIONIZE DIGITAL ELECTRONICS AND LEAD TO FASTER COMPUTERS AND BETTER COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS. THE EFFORTS TO RAISE SUPERCONDUCTING TEMPERATURES ACCELERATED LAST APRIL WHEN RESEARCHERS AT THE IBM ZURICH RESEARCH LABORATORY IN SWITZERLAND PIONEERED USING NEW METAL OXIDES AS CONDUCTORS. THEY USED COMBINATIONS OF LANTHANUM, COPPER AND OXYGEN WITH BARIUM AND OTHER METALS TO MAKE MATERIALS THAT WORKED AT HIGHER AND HIGHER TEMPERATURES. SINCE THEN, TEAMS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, AT&T BELL LABORATORIES, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO, THE INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS IN BEIJING, AND ELSEWHERE HAVE USED VARIOUS METAL OXIDE COMBINATIONS TO SET RECORD TEMPERATURES REPEATEDLY IN RECENT MONTHS. CHU SAID TEMPERATURES EVEN HIGHER THAN THE ONE HIS GROUP ACHIEVED ARE LIKELY BECAUSE ''THERE ARE SO MANY DIRECTIONS IN WHICH TO SEARCH FOR BETTER MATERIALS.''