Chasing Absolute Zero: A Seriously Cold Story

Chasing the ultimate chill? Forget Hollywood. Think absolute zero history. It’s the coldest. Period. Not just a ‘vibe.’ This is fundamental physics. Pushes boundaries. What we even get about matter. Ready for the epic quest? The ultimate chill.

Lord Kelvin Figured Out the Ultimate Cold, And Everything Changed

Okay, so there’s this dude, William Thomson. Later, Lord Kelvin. Super smart guy from Glasgow, Scotland. His lab? Right by the Kelvin River. Not just any scientist, either. He ran the Royal Society. Big deal back then. Got knighted in 1892. Baron, boom. Grabbed the river’s name. Kelvin scale starts.

Tons of science stuff from him. But temperature? That’s his jam. But why? Because Lord Kelvin figured out absolute zero. Lowest possible temp. In the whole universe. Not just some random number. It’s where molecules just stop moving. Theoretically. Used thermodynamics laws. Nailed it to 0 Kelvin. Or seriously, -273.15 degrees Celsius.

The Chase for Absolute Zero Kicked Off Major Steps in How We Understand Heat and Super Cold Stuff

Kelvin dropped the theory. Game on. Everyone in the Victorian era? Dropped everything. Like a gold rush. But for the coldest point. Absolute zero rush. People kinda thought ‘coldness’ was a real thing before this. Like some gas. Filled stuff up. That’s why water expanded when it froze.

Then, 1665: Robert Boyle, show up time. Weighed water. Froze it. Re-weighed. Verdict? Weights the same. Volume upped. That simple test smashed the ‘cold substance’ idea. Scientists? On the right track now.

This happened during the Industrial Revolution. Which was all about heat. Steam power, baby. Machines changed everything. But the how? Nobody totally got it. Figure out heat, get better machines. Billions in it for someone. So, theory and tests came together: heat was just molecules. Banging together like frantic billiard balls. And if absolute zero means no motion? What happens then? Does matter just vanish? Or a totally new state appear? Everyone was hooked.

Folks Like James Dewar and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Had Huge Headaches Trying to Make Gases Liquid, But They Got It Done for Hydrogen and Helium

Early on, Sir James Dewar. Scottish scientist. Basically Mr. Cold. And his own story with cold? Dramatic AF. Ten years old. Fell through a frozen lake. Almost died. Permanent damage. That near-death thing? Made him obsessed. He got super good at building stuff. Made his own equipment for science. Total DIY hero.

Dewar looked up to Michael Faraday, who hit -130°C using pressure. So Dewar dug into the ‘hydrogen problem.’ Other gases? Hit -200°C. Hydrogen needed -250°C. Tough. No tech. Not yet. Dewar wanted it bad. Dreamed of his name up there with Faraday’s. Royal Institution halls.

And from the Netherlands? Heike Kamerlingh Onnes rolls in. They were total opposites. Dewar? Super secretive. Nobody saw his stuff. Onnes, though, built a killer team. Really open about things. Collaborative. Clashing personalities. But their paths for liquid hydrogen still crossed. They talked. They theorized. But actually doing it? Still out of reach.

Meanwhile, Dewar put on a show for people. He’d drop stuff into liquid nitrogen. Smash. Then, amazing flame shows. Lit candles in liquid oxygen vapor. Wild. Called absolute zero “death of matter”. Like the final frontier.

Onnes and his crew hammered away. Dewar felt the heat. Saw Onnes as a menace, naturally. Tension climbed. Onnes wanted to visit Dewar’s London lab. Dewar said okay, but absolutely NO looking at the cool new cooling gear. Onnes had his own drama. Leiden shut his lab down. No accidents, but safety concerns. Crazy. Funny thing? Dewar called it a “science catastrophe”. Tried to stop it. Didn’t work. But for Dewar? The path was clear. And on May 10, 1898, he pulled it off. Liquefied hydrogen. Hit -252°C. Only 21 Kelvin from absolute zero. Did what Faraday thought was impossible. Boom.

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Made Helium Liquid, Which Led to Superfluidity and Superconductivity – Big Deal Discoveries

Science? Never sleeps. Onnes, not giving up, got the highest court to reopen his lab. Finally. Then, new mountain to climb: helium. Helium was once just for stars. Now? Found in rocks. And its liquefaction point? Even lower than hydrogen’s. Oh man. Dewar’s big hydrogen win? Totally overshadowed. This new ‘unclimbable’ thing. So fast.

Onnes adapted quick. Built hydrogen cooling stuff. Like Dewar’s. But for helium. Wanted it to cool helium. Simple. Built the gnarliest cooling system ever. One catch though: helium was super rare. Found some. Near Bath springs, America. Dewar, for all his smarts, couldn’t get enough. Onnes actually wrote Dewar. Rare move. Offered his whole setup, findings, everything. Just for helium. Dewar’s reply? Pretty telling: ‘Look, we both need helium. From the same spot. Not enough for two. I barely got enough for me. If I get more, then sure, I’ll share.’ Mmm-hmm. Not exactly how science usually works. Especially since there was plenty. For everyone.

Karma? Dewar’s helium work later? Total disaster zone. Accidents for days. Assistants hurt. One lost an eye. Onnes, though. Found his own helium. Kept pushing with his squad. One night. Everyone was stunned. Onnes did it. Liquefied helium. Hit -271°C. Only 5 Kelvin from absolute zero. Wow. What showed up? Weird. Clear fluid. Couldn’t even see it. Superfluid helium. New state of matter. Zero resistance stuff.

Onnes quickly told his rival/buddy in London. Dewar’s reply was congrats, but also kinda sick. Said he’d keep working. He didn’t. Onnes? Total history maker. But real talk, without Dewar’s initial work? His smarts? His breakthroughs? Onnes probably wouldn’t have made it.

He didn’t quit there. Used his cool new find. Checked how matter acts near absolute zero. Found things like mercury zapped electricity with no resistance. Around 1 Kelvin. Now? We call it superconductivity. This has seriously revolutionary uses. MRIs. Particle accelerators. Tons of future tech still cooking up. Dewar got tons of Nobel nods. Never won. But his work? Directly helped others. Like Onnes. To get that prize. Onnes, in his Nobel speech, totally gave props to his old friend. Said he couldn’t have done it without Dewar’s cold research.

Science Moves Forward with People Working Together and Competing, Just Like Dewar and Onnes Showed Us

Absolute zero story? A textbook example of this ‘push-pull’ thing. Dewar: super independent, super secret. Pushed limits with pure grit. And his own smarts. Onnes: team player. Open book. Used everyone’s brains. Early chats. Dewar saying no to helium. Dewar’s bad luck, then Onnes’s big win. It shows exactly how it went down. Science just works that way. Both the lone brilliant mind. And the shared effort.

Even Screw-Ups and Accidents Can Actually Help Science Go Forward

Dewar’s personal nightmare. That frozen lake accident. Not a lab thing, but it burned a deep-seated drive for cold into him. Later? Dewar and others hit tons of dangerous stuff. With all that cryogenic work. Dewar’s lab, trying helium? Assistants got hurt. One lost an eye. Serious stuff. Tragic, yeah. But these things pushed everyone. Made them learn better safety. And the real danger of extreme cold. Even Onnes’s lab getting shut down. Political drama, not his fault. Still a real barrier. He fought it. Legal persistence, man. Shows how society sees and regulates crazy science sometimes.

We’re Still Exploring Super Cold Temps, And Keep Finding Wild New States of Matter

Absolute zero journey? Just the start. Liquefying helium? Showed off properties Onnes never even imagined. Like, around 2.17 Kelvin. Helium atoms oddly just merge. One big ‘super-atom’. Bose-Einstein condensate. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle? Playing out huge.

Still pushing, scientists are. Now, they’re chasing ‘super-solid’ helium. Could go through walls. Has other seriously wild properties. We’ve gotten crazy close to absolute zero. Artificially, that is. 2003, MIT hit 0.45 nanokelvin. That’s 0.45 billionths of a Kelvin. NASA, with the Cold Atom Lab on the ISS? Going even lower. Aiming for 0.1 nanokelvin.

Can we actually reach absolute zero? Still a big debate. Many say nope. Needs infinite time, infinite energy. But hey, even if that ultimate zero stays unreachable forever? The stuff we found along the way? Superfluidity, superconductivity, whole new states of matter. Just amazing. Science, like always. A wild ride.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Absolute zero? What’s that in everyday temperature?

A: It’s 0 Kelvin. That’s -273.15°C. Or -459.67°F. Brrr.

Q: Why’d some scientists think ‘coldness’ was, like, a thing?

A: Before we really got heat, water freezing meant it expanded. So some folks thought a ‘cold substance’ got inside. Robert Boyle broke that idea. Showed water’s weight didn’t change frozen, just its size.

Q: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Big discovery near absolute zero?

A: After helium went liquid. Onnes found elements, like mercury, had zero electrical resistance. Around 1 Kelvin. Now? We call that superconductivity. Used in all sorts of tech today.