Imagine a stable, solid metal that is made of pure hydrogen – the ultimate solid fuel and lightweight material. That is now within our grasp, as scientists perfect a new method of ‘growing’ hydrogen crystals and nano-wires.

Twenty years ago, scientists saw the first signs that achieving metallic hydrogen was possible. By compressing microscopic amounts of hydrogen between two diamonds with massive force, the gas was observed to partially solidify, proving the theory that, with sufficient force, hydrogen could be coaxed into a solid state.

Now we are able to produce viable quantities of metallic hydrogen, and that changes all the rules and physical limitations of the most universal molecule. Metallic hydrogen is strong, lightweight and combustible – a dense energy store.

But the most exciting attribute of metallic hydrogen is that it’s the perfect superconductor, conducting electricity with zero resistance, even at room temperature!

The implications for quantum computers, fuel cells and synthetic photosynthesis are enormous, and will change the economics of energy, additive manufacturing and artificial intelligence, yet again.

What copper wire did for the electric motor and silicon for electronics, hydrogen metal will do for ultramagnetics – create new technologies that seemed impossible in the past. Like anti-gravity machines.

Perhaps now, at last, we can harness our planet’s electromagnetic field for levitation, transport – even space travel.