ASHRAE Insights

Cold. We take it for granted every time we open a refrigerator or switch on an air conditioner. Yet the conquest of cold is a triumph of science and technology—as important in the modern world as our mastery of heat. This exploration of the cold frontier is a great saga of science that has led to space travel, quantum computers and frozen food.

This winter, NOVA chronicles the race to conquer cold in the film Absolute Zero. Based on Tom Shachtman’s book, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, this NOVA special will be presented as two hour-long programs on Jan. 8 and Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. (check local listings).

ASHRAE served as a national partner for the program.

Absolute Zero features the struggle of philosophers, scientists and engineers over four centuries as they attempt to understand the nature of cold, from dark beginnings to an ultra-cold end point. Along the way they created cold technologies that have transformed the way we live, and gained insights into the nature of matter itself.

NOVA brings this subject to life using a combination of colorful historic recreations and insightful interviews with science historians and Nobel Prize winners.

The dramatization begins with 17th century court magician Cornelius Drebbel, who successfully created the world’s first air-conditioning system in Westminster Abbey. Other memorable characters include Daniel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius who created the first thermometers; Frederic Tudor who became one of the richest men in America by simply deciding to farm and sell ice; and Clarence Birdseye who made his name with frozen food.

A key part of the series tells the story of the decades-long scientific race between Scottish physicist James Dewar and Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, as the two men fought to reach the coldest temperature.

Their discoveries opened the door to the modern era of refrigeration and air conditioning.

The program climaxes with the Nobel-winning breakthrough, the production of a new form of matter that Albert Einstein predicted would exist within a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero.