Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold“A lovely, fascinating book, which brings science to life.” —Alan Lightman Combining science, history, and adventure, Tom Shachtman “holds the reader’s attention with the skill of a novelist” as he chronicles the story of humans’ four-centuries-long quest to master the secrets of cold (Scientific American). “A disarming portrait of an exquisite, ferocious, world-ending extreme,” Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold demonstrates how temperature science produced astonishing scientific insights and applications that have revolutionized civilization (Kirkus Reviews). It also illustrates how scientific advancement, fueled by fortuitous discoveries and the efforts of determined individuals, has allowed people to adapt to—and change—the environments in which they live and work, shaping man’s very understanding of, and relationship, with the world. This “truly wonderful book” was adapted into an acclaimed documentary underwritten by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, directed by British Emmy Award winner David Dugan, and aired on the BBC and PBS’s Nova in 2008 (Library Journal). “An absorbing account to chill out with.” —Booklist |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 47
Page
... become essential in the production and use of micro- chips and other electronics . 1986 Alex Müller and Georg Bednorz produce " high- temperature " superconductivity . 1995 A Bose - Einstein condensate is created at 170 - billionths of ...
... become essential in the production and use of micro- chips and other electronics . 1986 Alex Müller and Georg Bednorz produce " high- temperature " superconductivity . 1995 A Bose - Einstein condensate is created at 170 - billionths of ...
Page 1
... become a more real destination , as Victorian scientists tried to reach absolute zero , a point they sometimes called “ Ultima Thule . " Likening themselves to contemporary explorers of the uncharted Arctic and Antarctic regions, these ...
... become a more real destination , as Victorian scientists tried to reach absolute zero , a point they sometimes called “ Ultima Thule . " Likening themselves to contemporary explorers of the uncharted Arctic and Antarctic regions, these ...
Page 2
... become snow in the heavens or ice on the earth? What formed the snowflakes? Why was ice so slippery? In 1620 these and dozens of other age-old, obvious questions about the cold were considered not only unanswerable but beyond the reach ...
... become snow in the heavens or ice on the earth? What formed the snowflakes? Why was ice so slippery? In 1620 these and dozens of other age-old, obvious questions about the cold were considered not only unanswerable but beyond the reach ...
Page 4
... become a beggar, all my clothes in rags. In front of his audience, Drebbel appeared to change into a lion, a bird, a tree with trembling leaves; he summoned ghosts, first the menacing kind, then heroic spirits such as Richard the ...
... become a beggar, all my clothes in rags. In front of his audience, Drebbel appeared to change into a lion, a bird, a tree with trembling leaves; he summoned ghosts, first the menacing kind, then heroic spirits such as Richard the ...
Page 5
... become privy to his marvelous secrets. So: Probably in the afternoon, when the heat of the day was at its height, and between one of the seven daily sessions of monks' devo- tions, the royal party entered the abbey, presumably through a ...
... become privy to his marvelous secrets. So: Probably in the afternoon, when the heat of the day was at its height, and between one of the seven daily sessions of monks' devo- tions, the royal party entered the abbey, presumably through a ...
Contents
| 1 | |
| 16 | |
| 36 | |
4 Adventures in the Ice Trade | 56 |
5 The Confraternity of the Overlooked | 78 |
6 Through Heat to Cold | 95 |
7 Of Explosions and Mysterious Mists | 109 |
8 Painting the Map of Frigor | 125 |
10 The Fifth Step | 167 |
11 A Sudden and Profound Disappearance | 183 |
12 Three Puzzles and a Solution | 200 |
13 Mastery of the Cold | 219 |
Back Matter | 241 |
Back Cover | 263 |
Spine | 264 |
9 Rare and Common Gases | 153 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute zero American ammonia Amontons apparatus atoms Bacon became become believed boiling Boyle Boyle's Boyle's law Cailletet caloric Carnot century chemist chemistry Clausius commercial cooling Cornelis Drebbel degree above absolute devices discovery Drebbel electrical resistance electricity electrons energy engine evaporation experimental experiments explanation exploration Fahrenheit Faraday freezing glass Gorrie Hampson heat and cold Heike Kamerlingh Onnes invention James Dewar James Joule Joule Joule's Kamerlingh Onnes Kapitsa Kelvin laboratory Landau later Leiden Linde liquefied gases liquefied helium liquid air liquid helium liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen London low temperatures low-temperature research lower machine magnetic field mathematical matter Mayer measure mercury metal motion natural natural-ice nitrogen numbers Olszewski Onnes's perature philosopher physicist physics point of water predicted pressure produced Ramsay reached refrigeration resistance Robert Boyle Royal Institution Royal Society scientific scientists substance superconductivity superfluid theory thermodynamics thermometer Thomson tion Tudor ture vessel Waals Wroblewski wrote
Popular passages
Page 103 - It is impossible by means of inanimate material agency to derive mechanical effect from any portion of matter by cooling it below the temperature of the coldest of the surrounding objects.
Page 104 - Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have been, and within a finite period of time to come, the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the material world are subject.
Page 23 - The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.
Page 27 - New experiments and observations touching cold, or, An experimental history of cold, begun. To which are added an examen of antiperistasis, and an examen of Mr.
Page 20 - Truth ; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things (which is the chief point), and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences ; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to reconsider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. So I thought...
Page 25 - For the works of God are not like the tricks of jugglers, or the pageants, that entertain princes, where concealment is requisite to wonder; but the knowledge of the works of God proportions our admiration of them, they participating and disclosing so much of the inexhausted perfections of their author, that the further we contemplate them, the more foot-steps and impressions we discover of the perfections of their Creator; and our utmost science can but give us a juster veneration of his omniscience.
Page 91 - I could imagine those gentlemen in London sitting round a table and saying to each other: 'What good can come out of a town where they dine in the middle of the day?
Page 10 - Drebell conceived, that it is not the whole body of the air, but a certain quintessence (as Chymists speak) or spirituous part of it, that makes it fit for respiration...