Conquering Absolute Zero

At a time when adventurers were still competing to conquer the ice-cold vastness of the North and South Poles, scientists were running a tight race to get as close as possible to absolute zero, the lowest temperature possible, one of just over -273 °C.

Absolute zero is the temperature at which atoms and molecules reach their lowest point of kinetic energy. Even though the absolute zero can never be reached in a laboratory, we can come close. Today, scientists use special techniques to cool do...