A research team from the University of Cambridge discovered that samarium hexaboride has unique electrical properties. It acts as both a conductor and insulator depending on temperature - the surface is conductive like a metal at low temperatures, while the interior is insulating. This challenges traditional understandings of materials as either purely metallic conductors or insulating insulators. The research, led by Professor Suchitra Sebastian, found samarium hexaboride is a good room temperature conductor that becomes a topological insulator with a complex, special electron interaction in its interior at low temperatures.