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Absolute Zero

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss absolute zero, the theoretical lower limit of temperature.

In a programme first broadcast in 2013, Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss absolute zero, the lowest conceivable temperature. ÌýIn the early eighteenth century the French physicistÌýGuillaume Amontons suggested that temperature had a lower limit. ÌýThe subject of low temperature became a fertile field of research in the nineteenth century, and today we know that this limit - known as absolute zero - is approximately minus 273 degrees Celsius. ÌýIt is impossible to produce a temperature exactly equal to absolute zero, but today scientists have come to within a billionth of a degree. ÌýAt such low temperatures physicists have discovered a number of strange new phenomena including superfluids, liquids capable of climbing a vertical surface.

With:

Simon Schaffer
Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge

Stephen Blundell
Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford

Nicola Wilkin
Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the University of Birmingham

Producer: Thomas Morris

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Thu 4 Jun 2020 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

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READING LIST:

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Peter Atkins, The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2010)

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Stephen Blundell, Superconductivity: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2009)

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S. J. Blundell and K. M. Blundell, Concepts in Thermal Physics (Oxford University Press, 2006)

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R. de Bruyn Ouboter, ‘Heike Kamerlingh Onnes’s Discovery of Superconductivity’ (Scientific American 276, 1997)

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C. Cercignani, Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man who Trusted Atoms (Oxford University Press, 2006)

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K. Mendelssohn, The Quest for Absolute Zero: The Meaning of Low Temperature Physics (Taylor & Francis Ltd, 1977)

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C. J. Pethick and H. Smith, Bose-Einstein Condensation in Dilute Gases (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

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Ralph Scurlock, History and Origins of Cryogenics (Oxford University Press, 1993)

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Tom Shachtman, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold (Mariner Books, 2000)

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Broadcasts

  • Thu 7 Mar 2013 09:00
  • Thu 7 Mar 2013 21:30
  • Thu 4 Jun 2020 21:30

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