Superconductivity: There's Plenty of Cream at the Bottom

In 1961, Brian Pippard gave a speech at IBM called "The Cat and the Cream", in which he declared that the superconductivity field was finished, at least for "young innocents who wish to break new ground": the cream was gone, and the bowl was empty. I show why the subsequent 6 decades proved him so dramatically wrong, how new materials and experimental techniques have continuously driven new theoretical understandings, such that the field has been constantly renewed, and is in fact a very good place for young researchers to make a career.