how cold is cold?

image from the day after tomorrow

fdq is a contributor to my little blog but he doesn't like to write anything but code so i'll write a couple of entries for him. what he does enjoy is learning stuff. luckily, some of the stuff he learns rubs off on me. last night he made me watch the nova show absolute zero. to paraphrase his words, he usually has some prior knowledge of topics on shows but he's never seen a show about cold. the show was in 2 parts and i only saw the 2nd part but i'd have to agree with fdq - it was fascinating. absolute zero is -273 degrees celsius and scientists have yet to achieve that exact temperature. they've gotten very close by liquefying gases. one of the most amazing things is another state of matter was discovered (and realizing quantum mechanics) when scientists cooled these gases. the nova program did a good job in dumbing the science down so we have an inkling of it. you can watch the show online and i'd recommend it. you'll feel smarter at least.

after all this smartness, i gotta say that this mit scientist dude shown at the end of the nova show needs a reality check and a haircut.
image from necsi