Number 112 (Story #4), January 28, 1993 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein APPLICATIONS OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTING (HTS) materials are coming along, slowly. Several companies, such as the American Superconducting Corp. and the Intermagnetics General Corp., now make 100-m bismuth-based HTS wires able to carry currents of 10,000 A/cm**2. Unfortunately the wires can't operate yet in high magnetic fields, which precludes their use in magnets or motors. A temporary solution might be to lower the operating temperature from 77 K down to 30 K, where magnetic flux lines stay put and the superconducting state is preserved. Meanwhile, HTS films have been used in a commercial product, namely SQUID detectors marketed last year by Conductus. (Science, 15 Jan. 1993.)