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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head><title>NOVA | Absolute Zero | PBS</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <meta name="description" content="In this companion Web site to the NOVA program Absolute Zero, learn about the theoretical upper limit of temperature, find an article by author Tom Shachtman on the cultural impact of artificial refrigeration, read an interview with physicist Luis Orozco on ultracold Bose-Einstein condensates, browse a list of notable temperatures ranging from absolute zero to the hottest theoretical temperature in the universe, and more." /> <meta name="keywords" content="absolute zero, air conditioning, Antoine Lavoisier, Bose-Einstein condensate, Celcius, cold, cool, cooling, Cornelius Drebbel, Count Benjamin Rumford, Daniel Kleppner, Fahrenheit, freeze, 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href="/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_hot.jpg" alt="Absolute Hot" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/hot.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">Absolute Hot</span></a><br /> Is there an opposite to absolute zero? </p> </div> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/scale.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_scal.gif" alt="A Sense of Scale" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/scale.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">A Sense of Scale</span></a><br /> Travel from absolute zero to what may be the highest temperature of all. </p> </div> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/research.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_rese.jpg" alt="Milestones In Cold Research" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/research.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">Milestones In<br />Cold Research</span></a><br /> From Galileo's thermoscope to a recent experiment that reached less than a billionth of a degree above absolute zero </p> </div> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/conquest.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_conq.jpg" alt="The Conquest of Cold" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/conquest.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">The Conquest<br />of Cold</span></a><br /> In the U.S., refrigeration played a key role in the rise of cities—and the final subjugation of native cultures in the West. </p> </div> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/atoms.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_atom.jpg" alt="Ultracold Atoms" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/atoms.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">Ultracold Atoms</span></a><br /> Physicist Luis Orozco on enigmatic substances called BECs that form just above absolute zero </p> </div> </td> <td class="t_main_v"><img src="/wgbh/nova/images06/nav-proghome-stripe-v2.jpg" alt="" width="13" height="560" border="0" /></td> <td class="t_main_c1"> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/howlow.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_howl.jpg" alt="How Low Can You Go?" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/howlow.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">How Low<br />Can You Go?</span></a><br /> In our virtual lab, use the "cascade" process to achieve dramatically lower temperatures. </p> </div> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/matter.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_matt.jpg" alt="States of Matter" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p 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class="main_info_entry_h">Anatomy of a Refrigerator</span></a><br /> You likely have one, but do you know how it works? </p> </div> <div class="main_info_entry"> <a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/trade.html"> <img class="f_left_h" src="/wgbh/nova/zero/images/icon_trad.jpg" alt="The Ice Trade" width="60" height="55" border="0" /></a> <p class="main_info_entry_it"><a href="/wgbh/nova/zero/trade.html"> <span class="main_info_entry_h">The Ice Trade</span></a><br /> In this game, dispatch 10 ships loaded with natural ice to Florida, Brazil, or India. 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