Professor James Dewar of the Royal Institution in London examines a tube of solid oxygen that has been dipped in liquid hydrogen.
Air-conditioning, refrigeration, rocket fuel and superconductivity are just some of the ways technology has put cold to use with innovations that have revolutionized our lives. But what is cold, how do we achieve it and how cold can it get? NOVA explores these and other facets of the frigid in “Absolute Zero,” two one-hour broadcasts airing Thursday, December 25, 2008, 5:00-7:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m - Midnight on PBS-World. The Conquest of Cold airs first, followed by The Race for Absolute Zero.
The two-part special follows the quest for cold from the unlikely grandfather of air-conditioning, the court magician of King James I of England in the 17th century, to today’s scientists pioneering super-fast computing in the quantum chill near absolute zero — the ultimate extreme of cold at minus 459.67 F, where atoms slow to a virtual standstill.
Based on Tom Shachtman‘s definitive book on cold, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, the film brings the history of this frosty fascination to life with historical re-creations of great moments in low-temperature research and the quest for ever-lower notches on the thermometer.
See previews and find out more at pbs.org
By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.