Why Absolute Zero Temperature Is Really . . . Cool

Absolutely Awesome

I recently showed a documentary to my students on Absolute Zero: the coldest possible temperature in the natural world. Scientists tried to attain absolute zero -- and achieved it, finally -- and students wanted to know why.

Not how. Why.

Temperature scale

Source: Magnet Lab

Some Quick Background

Absolute zero is 0 kelvin, or -273 degrees Celsius, or -460 degrees Fahrenheit. In other words, it will knock your socks off. If it gets the chance. Until the mid-1990s, absolute zero had never been achieved anywhere, so it hasn't had much of a chance.

Scientists at Boulder and MIT finally achieved Almost-Absolute-Zero in a laboratory, creating a few billionths of a degree above 0 kelvin. They took half a million atoms and shot them with lasers which made them stop moving. The result was pure cold: it was a Bose-Einstein Condensate, in which the atoms became strange wave-like packets that tangled up and became a superfluid. This superfluid condensate, being super, and having no viscosity, could climb the walls of its container and spill over the sides. It effectively defied gravity.

But Why?

After the documentary, one of my students said, "What's the point of all this? Why all the trouble for something that has no practical purpose?"

This question hinged on the merits of applied versus pure research. Whereas applied reasearch aims to solve some practical problem for someone's benefit, pure research is for the sake of knowledge and discovery only. It has no immediate practical benefit.

The Answer

So if research (and lots of funding) goes toward something that doesn't help anyone, is it worthwhile?

Absolutely. Work for a tangible, problem-solving end is the only good kind of research only in a world devoid of imagination and devoid of the love of knowledge. But we live in a world created for our enjoyment. This means that getting smarts and wisdom applies to every aspect of nature. It might serve a practical purpose, or it might not, but it always serves to create a rollicking good time. The scientists at Boulder and MIT were certainly having a good time. Witnessing a mysterious, rare liquid at an unfathomable temperature isn't exactly an imagination-killer.

Say howdy to something you don't know about. Learn it. Take it to dinner and have a good time. Then do it again tomorrow.