Absolute Zero And The Conquest Of Cold

by Tom Shachtman

In a sweeping yet marvelously concise history, Tom Shachtman ushers us into a world in which scientists tease apart the all-important secrets of cold. Readers take
an extraordinary trip, starting in the 1600s with an alchemist's air conditioning of
Westminster Abbey and scientists' creation of thermometers. Later, while entrepreneurs sold Walden Pond ice to tropical countries -- packed in "high-tech" sawdust -- researchers pursued absolute zero and interpreted their work as romantically as did adventurers to remote regions. Today, playing with ultracold temperatures is one of the hottest frontiers in physics, with scientists creating useful particles Einstein only dreamed of.

Tom Shachtman shares a great scientific adventure story and its characters' rich lives in a book that has won a grant from the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Absolute Zero is for everyone who loves history and science history stories, who's eager to explore Nobel Prize-winning physics today, or who has ever sighed with pleasure on encountering air conditioning.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction, Physics, Microhistory, Science Nature, Chemistry

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1999

About the author

Since I always wanted to be a writer, I consider myself fortunate to have had my work published and produced in many forms—40 histories, novels, and books for children, plus filmed documentaries and TV dramas, poetry, plays, songs, newspaper columns, magazine articles, even a comic book.

My newest book (January 2020) is THE FOUNDING FORTUNES: HOW THE WEALTHY PAID FOR AND PROFITED FROM AMERICA’S REVOLUTION. This completes a trilogy of books on the Revolutionary Era; the earlier ones are GENTLEMEN SCIENTISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES, and HOW THE FRENCH SAVED AMERICA.

My book ABSOLUTE ZERO AND THE CONQUEST OF COLD, about 400 years of research into low temperatures, became the basis for a two-hour documentary special for BBC and PBS. The program and my script for it won the American Institute of Physics’ science writing award for 2009. The book itself was praised by The New York Times Book Review as written “with passion and clarity,” by the Library Journal as “truly wonderful,” and by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as “an absolute delight.”

Many of my other books have also received welcome critical praise. Library Journal wrote of RUMSPRINGA: TO BE OR NOT TO BE AMISH that is provided “a near-unprecedented glimpse into the inner lives of Amish society.” The Economist called AROUND THE BLOCK “a near-classic,” The New Yorker “A grand idea, splendidly executed,” and The Washington Post Book World “thoughtful, interesting … a good and useful book.” THE INARTICULATE SOCIETY was judged as “perceptive and disturbing” by The Washington Post, and by The Wall Street Journal as “a provocative examination of the American way with words.” Business Week labeled SKYSCRAPER DREAMS “fascinating history … the stuff of grand comedy,” and The New York Times cited it for “superb reporting on the industry’s wheeling and dealing.” “Fascinating … illuminating … stunning detail,” the Chicago Tribune wrote of THE GILDED LEAF (written with Patrick Reynolds).

I’ve also written books for children, including three novels, BEACHMASTER, WAVEBENDER and DRIFTWHISTLER, now published in several languages. My non-fiction children’s books include THE PRESIDENT BUILDS A HOUSE, about the work of Habitat for Humanity and, with my wife Harriet Shelare, VIDEO POWER.

My collaborations with criminologist Robert K. Ressler, the man who coined the term serial killers and knew more about them than anyone else, include WHOEVER FIGHTS MONSTERS and I HAVE LIVED IN THE MONSTER, both multi-million-copy best-sellers overseas.

My articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Smithsonian, and the Hoover Digest, as well as on the websites of The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, History News Network, and the Journal of the American Revolution. My occasional column for THE LAKEVILLE JOURNAL (CT), “The Long View,’ provides historical context to current events.

I am a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America, a longtime member of The Authors Guild, and a former president of the board and current trustee of The Writers Room in New York City, an urban writers’ colony. I’ve also served as a trustee of the Connecticut Humanities Council, and of The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area.

Reviews

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolute Zero is a fascinating popular history of research into cold, from Francis Bacon through the present day, with a climax around the liquification of helium by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Popular in the sense that Shachtman avoids equations and a historical perspective, this book is comprehensive and enjoyable.

As Shachtman notes, cold presents an unusual negation of phenomenon for early physicists. Unlike light, sound, motion, or heat, cold is an absence. Francis Bacon, the proto-experimentalist, died of pneumonia after an impromptu test to see if snow could preserve chicken (yes), and after that the study of cold languished for centuries, a mere adjunct to the more important measurement of temperature.

The dominant caloric theory of the 18th century was intuitively satisfying, but its invocation of a ineffable and non-existent heat bearing fluid model the emerging technology of steam engines, or the mechanical production of cold by gas expansion. As physicists experimented with cold, they proved that gases could transform to new phases of matter at low temperatures and above atmospheric pressure. Carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and finally helium were all liquified.

Onnes was the first to liquify helium, and the first to note the astonish property of low temperature superconductivity in mercury and a host of other substances, as well as the superfluid behavior of liquid helium. Low temperatures proved an experimental bridge between classical physics and the new quantum physics, where at low temperatures macro-scale objects that could be manipulated in the lab exhibited properties only explainable by quantum effects.

Today, commercial refrigeration and air conditioning are so commonplace as to be entirely unremarkable, but cold was once cutting edge, and this book captures the romance of the quest for absolute zero.

[Barney Beins · Rating 5 out of 5]

We take for granted things like air conditioning, ice makers, and other products that are cold. But the quest to harness cold--even to recognize it as a useful construct--was long in coming. Schachtman's book gives a great history of the development of thoughts about cold and the quest to cool things to absolute zero. A lot of fascinating history, including the petty squabbles among scientists. One interesting question: How do you take the temperature of something that is so cold that our regular thermometers would freeze long before you registered the correct temperature? The last chapter is a pretty quick and heavy treatment of modern physics/chemistry associated with cold research, but you can skip some of the details and still get the point.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I acquired the ebook via Humble Bundle. This book is a mix of Science, History and maybe a little philosophy. It covers topics like air conditioning, the invention of the thermometer, and refrigeration. I thought it seemed interesting at first, but soon lost interest; but I’m not a science nerd. It obviously contains lots of science/technical terms, scientists and plenty of temperatures. The formal style means it’s not one that you can easily plough through. For the correct target market, it probably is a great read.

[Julio Biason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one weird of a history book.

In one hand, you have a lot of details on how lots of scientists stood "on the shoulders of giants" and managed to get closer to the absolute zero (you know, 0K), all their exploits in the way, the way their research changed the world we know today, their bickering... The names, the places, the years, all there.

It is interesting that, although it tells the history of scientists, it portraits them as people, with flaws and all.

On the other hand, though, for a book about the history of science, there is little science in it. There are very few explanations on the physics level of how such low temperatures where reached. I know the book doesn't claim to be in such way, but it provides very little information on the subject that you don't even know where to look to get more information.

Also, it seems on the "affects" part of the discoveries, the author focused on the Unided States only. Sure, there are mentions on people trying to carry ice on the old continent, but it seems the results of the research only affected the United States. It increased the economy! People from California bought such and such! Ice from Michigan could be carried far away! Not only that direct focus on a single country is annoying, but almost 90% of the scientists that carried the research where not American. It's like, yeah, all those Dutch dudes did a bunch of research but they did absolutely nothing to their country.

Also also, a history book with "in the future" doesn't age well. The book was published in 1999 (20 years to the date of this review) and it has a bunch of "expected in the future", which sounds more like a magazine article than a real book.

[Pancha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of artificial cooling. The early chapters are more humanities-based, leading to chemistry and finally to physics and absolute zero.

[Bab · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting, in many ways...

Very informative, mostly in the first chapters and the whole historic panorama, then little by little... the more interesting it should get... the more it dillutes away. It gradually loses your interest and leaves you colder and colder and, in the end, completely cold, pun completely intended.

I guess it might have to do with the writing - I'm used to reading this kind of popular science and it usually is much more consistent, it's more carefully and nicely edited. So it depends on the authors and the editors, and how very interesting to the general public the topic is. This wasn't going to be a blockbuster so this level of effort was more than adequate, they guessed.

To me, its weak points boil down to lack of precision and "lack of science": for instance, there's a lot of discussion of temperatures and pressures, and also about historical guesses regarding the melting points of several elements, and also about the lowest temperatures that have been reached, especially in recent times, but no explanation whatsoever of where did those old guesses come from, which were the formulae and devices those old scientists used, why do you need to melt or solidify an element to reach a specific temperature, or which are the specific methods and machinery that the latest scientists have used -also, and noteworthly missing, are any interviews with contemporary scientists-. This means that in some chapter they tell you they went down some further fraction of a Celsius degree, which was oh my such a huge breaktrough, and it leaves you wondering 'now who the f!#@ cares'.
And you're reading the book, you're interested, you should be the one who cares. Only you don't.

In the end I kinda liked it, I learned a few interesting facts about the subject, I didn't get any glimpse of the actual science involved -formulae, and graphics, and pictures of people and their equipment, come on, people, it's not that hard!-, it drove me all the way doen from 'wow this is so cool -lol-' to 'gdamn I hope hell freezes over already'. Not terrible, not really good. 2.5*

[Shelley Alongi]

This book starts in the 16th century and then goes back and forward in time to explain how people experimented with liquid faction of gases and figuring out how to freeze things and still not finding absolute zero. At least they didn’t find it when this book was written they were getting pretty close. Someone told me that they didn’t know anyone who was as fascinated with cold as I was so I read this book. I thought it might be more a discussion of the weather, but it was even more interesting because I could add to my knowledge about what happens to gases when they reach certain temperatures. And some of the things I thought were pretty obvious as in ice melting because of the heat around it. Now that makes perfect sense, but I have to admit that I hadn’t thought of it like that before. There were things that I definitely could not follow, but I’m sure on a second Red I could pick them up. The chemical compounds Were the ones I had the most difficulty following. I was interested, however, to learn about the composition of dry ice, especially since I’ve touched dry ice before. Not very long I can tell you that. I wondered what the chemical makeup was, and so if there was one thing I took away from this book, it was the chemical composition of dry ice. What also made me interested in finding out what dry ice is composed of was it I received a package that was packed in dry ice. I had to wonder if I had to dispose of it in a certain way, but it did it all by itself. :-) Interesting book. Very very interesting. :-)

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but perhaps not as detailed as I'd have liked, it did talk about absolute zero, the persuit there of, and how scientists got closer and closer to it throughout the 16, 17, and 18 hundreds, and it finishes with a decent summary of modern sources for further study.
The topics covered here are varied, and perhaps that's why each one is only given a cursory examination, but I'd have liked one that concentrated more on the actual discoveries, and perhaps the details of how they affected modern science, rather than just an overview, with the discoveries themselves, and focusing on the actual people that made those discoveries.
It's still a very good primer for anyone interested in learning about the absolute zero history, and if anyone is interested in how the search came about, who took part, and how each contributed, then this is definitely a good book to consult. If you're looking for the hard science behind it all, how that affected other processes, and how it lead to modern day cryonics, then this book won't give you enough detail to satiate your curiosity, but it won't hurt reading it anyway, if nothing else, for all the background it provides.

[Peter Gelfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, documented, and written, this book tells the story to date of the ongoing research into the coldest possible temperatures: how they were produced, the strange properties of matter and energy at those conditions, and their actual and potential usefulness. This strange realm might end up being as useful to technology as another prime sphere of research, cold fusion.

Perhaps unfairly, I didn’t rate the book higher simply because it concentrates more on the history of the science than the science itself. The quirks and rivalries among the earlier researchers weren’t what I was looking for. On the other hand, it’s probably salubrious to get some hints about how quaint and ignorant our present-day technology, scientists, and theories will seem a century down the road.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up just out of curiosity about the science of cold, and how the discoveries were made. I found the tales of the scientists personalities fascinating. Some shared their discoveries, others kept their knowledge to themselves. Some because inventors, and others were strictly scientists who wanted to understand things. The final pages listed several ways extreme cold helped with unlocking secrets to recently technological advances. I had to open my mind to see that in the 1800's there were things many high school or college students take for granted now, but weren't factually accepted or known at that time.

[Steve Wegman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the pursuit of control of cold, aiming for absolute zero, from the early days when heat wasn’t understood to the book’s publishing in 1999 when temperatures of a few billionths of a degree from zero had been reached, and all the spin off benefits from this search. It ranged a little off course in some of the early history, and for someone reading in 2021 it's unfortunate that the book was written 20+ years ago because so much more has happened since, but it's an enjoyable read for anyone interested in how the physical world works.

[Nathan Oldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a chemistry nerd, and this book had all of my favourite characters: The scientists who studied and experimented to get ultra-cold temperatures at the turn of the century. This book frames it is a competition between different labs at different institutions, adding a depth to what could have been a plain, here's-what-happened kind of story.

I didn't need a Bachelors in Chemistry to understand what was happening, but the names were more familiar to me because I'd seen them before.

[Andy Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating..history book with a splash of science

Goes into a lot of details about how science has explored below freezing temperatures. This focuses more on the people and their background but it does cover specific bits of science at a high level when needed.

Easy enough to follow as a lay-person, there were some bits that seemed a bit repetitive but not sure if that's the writing or me!

Enjoyed reading it

[Lyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

very deep story

wan’t excatly what i thought when i was attracted by the title. it was a good book, but it is more about science not the history i thought. but still a good history of the science of cold.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating presentation of the development of the concepts of heat and cold and the measurement of temperature.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science for its on sake just to know more than we did and it changed the world. Physics medicine shipping food oh hell everything. Great read

[Rachael Malfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating subject.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

What this book desperately needed was a few sidebars or an appendix to diagram out the science of cold. Schachtman does a great job building a narrative around a few centuries of scientific endeavors in Europe, but a lot of the tension and drama centers around (of course) the science of cold. I did OK following along in the beginning (and it was a great mental exercise to think through his explanation of expansion and contraction of gasses and so forth) but by the end, when the science is more complicated, I pretty much gave up.

My other big issue is that Shachtman's focus is completely Western without explanation or apology. There is one half-page early on where he references the science of the cold in other countries, but it is both awkwardly shoe-horned in and totally insufficient. Otherwise, he completely ignores the rest of the world, treating Europe as the only place that matters. For example, in that half paragraph, he mentions "In China, the maintenance of icehouses for the preservation of fruits and vegetables dates to the seventh century B.C." but then goes on to make a lot of blanket assertions about how it had never occurred to anyone to use cold to preserve food until the 1800s. There's not even a half-hearted disclaimer that this is the history of the WESTERN study of cold. It makes me very interested for a different, more complete book.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had lots of wonderful information, and I learned a thing or two that I didn't know before about science and history. It wasn't a difficult read, but it had some slow parts, and I wish that it had been organized a little different. Instead of building towards one idea, this book bounces around a little. I think I got a little bored with all of the economic influences that the study of cold had/has... while I understand it's a big factor, and a driving motivation for some people, I just like all the tidbits about what strange stuff happens when stuff is super-cooled. I also liked the discussions about HOW something is made to be so cold, I didn't know there were different ways of making something cold. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a little more serious about learning the science and history of absolute zero, who won't be dissatisfied with less story telling... it reads a little more like a textbook, and that is the only reason why I didn't rate it higher.

[Dinochunks01 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in the same spirit as I used to watch and rewatch the James Burke "Connections" series. Raising a family, including shepherding the education of my sons, has forced me to be on the lookout for books like this. We parents like to encourage, what are lamely referred to as success behaviors (I've hated that term ever since it appeared on my job reviews). A book like this combines the benefits of a historical analysis with the wonder of serendipitous discovery and the, all too human, of stealing ideas, fame, and money, associated with great discoveries. In short, an education in the real world. I enjoyed reading about the unseen connections at play in the Man's Quest for Ice, (which would be a good name for a rock band).

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot, though it was a lot of work to follow the science at times. As several reviewers stated, it is in the general spirit of Dava Sobel's classic Longitude. However, this one is MUCH more detailed as far as science goes. As a result, since I don't have that great a physics background, I had to work at it. It would be best enjoyed by someone who knows physics better than I do, but wants some casual and fascinating history-of-science reading.

It's also packed with amazing fodder for steampunk scenarios. I love science history partially because of all the wrong turns it takes. I love to speculate about what might have occurred if physical science conclusions made in prior centuries were correct. This book has LOTS of fuel for that kind of imaginative exploration.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes the history of cold fun. A bit repetitious in tone, but otherwise entertaining discovery of when and how people discovered ways to put cold to use. The bickering between the Victorian scientists adds a gossipy touch that livens things up. The descriptions of harvesting Hudson River ice and of how you achieve temperatures close to absolute zero made this a worthwhile read for me.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a little like reading a meticulously researched, exhaustive, four-hundred page book on tractors. I mean, at the very least you have to respect the effort, and acknowledge that tractor people would really be into it. If I hadn't agreed to read the book so I could teach a honors college class on refrigeration, I'd have stopped after the first 50 pages. I just feel badly for the 160 students in the class, who likewise had to wade through the book.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the writing could have been tightened up a bit (a few parts seemed repetitious), overall it's an interesting history of the science and application of cold. I particularly liked the insight into how refrigeration affected the standard of living in the US and beyond- I had not realized how early in the country's history refrigeration came into use for shipping produce and meat, or what an impact that had. For some reason I thought refrigeration was a twentieth century innovation.

[Andy Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a great short-ish history of cold. The author mostly does a good job progressing chronologically through history, but it's noticeable that he spends half the book in the late 1800s and almost no time in the last hundred years. I would have liked to hear more about the latest science, but overall I enjoyed the book and would read more by him.

[Garrett Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book combines two things I love: fascinating science and a riveting personal story. While I'd read about the history of "absolute zero" on Wikipedia, this book fills in a lot of the gaps, providing personal details and a sense of depth that a mere encyclopedia cannot.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1995 a Bose-Einstein Condensate was created at 170-billionths of a degree above Absolute Zero...

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of science and technology of low temperatures. Very readable, not dry

[emilio squillante]

This topic drew some bizarre personalities so parts of the book were quite lively.