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My interest in science was rekindled by Absolute Zero, a documentary from BBC. Back in high school days, I really love Chemistry experiments. Physics is not my favorite Science but Physics experiments are very interactive so I liked it a lot, too. Physics deals a lot with the principle of matter and energy when you are dealing with elements and atoms so it influences Chemistry experiments, too.

The most interesting part of this two-part documentary is the race to reach absolute zero. In The Conquest of Cold (first part), the invention of refrigerator shows how the use of ice influenced the industry and world economy at large. In The Race for Absolute Zero (second part), the documentary reviewed the details on how great scientists raced in reaching the illusive zero Kelvin, and how they competed to create the first Bose-Einstein Condensate.

Scientists have not reached zero Kelvin yet but they are very darn close to achieving it and they are still experimenting on how to get there. The lowest so far is at 100 pK achieved at Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. That might be outdated because there must be on-going experiments now that have achieved even lower temperature.

I am not a scientist but I always keep an inquiring mind about the mysteries of nature and the universe.

Absolute Zero BBC documentary is based on Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold book written by Tom Shachtman.

Link: BBC Four Documentaries: Absolute Zero