Absolute Zero Press Kit

 

Q & A with russell donnelly

A Conversation with Russell Donnelly - Physics professor at the University of Oregon and Principal Scientific Consultant For Absolute Zero

Q. How did you get involved in this project?

R.D.: Several laboratories doing low-temperature physics have made movies showing some effects in the cold sciences of superfluidity and superconductivity. These tended to move so quickly, there was little time to understand what was going on, even for a trained scientist. It seemed to me that very few people in the general public have any understanding of just what is going on in low-temperature research, and how much it affects their daily lives.

What first grabbed my attention was a request from the management from an official at NASA to tell him just what "my grandmother should know about low temperature physics." Failure to answer that question in a contractor's meeting threatened the renewal of considerable grant support from NASA headquarters.

The first thing I gave him was a simple compilation of Nobel Prizes in low temperature physics. At the time, I believe, there were at least 18, and it was clear there would be more. When I then looked into the giant industries made possible by the use of cold to liquefy gases, I realized there was an important story to try to convey to the public.

The final accident was a call from Tom Shachtman who was writing a book on the subject. Tom wanted some expert advice on technical matters and sent me the manuscript. On reading it I realized at once that this was exactly the right story to bring to the public: its title is Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold. It does not contain a single equation, or a single graph, but it conveys in words the sweep of the evolution of our subject in a compelling and intellectually accurate way; it is a story with details I had never heard of, even though I'm a professional in the field with a deep interest in the history of science.

Q. How did you personally get involved in the science of the cold?

R.D.: I was born in Hamilton, Canada, and educated through bachelor's and master's degrees with a theses in nuclear physics. When I went to Yale for my doctor's degree in 1952, I was convinced the glory days of nuclear physics were over, and I looked around for a field that was exciting and relatively new. I was assigned as a teaching assistant to a group that studied low temperature physics and I was captivated immediately. I have spent my entire life since in low temperature physics.

Q. What have you learned working on the Absolute Zero documentaries?

R.D.: My next door neighbor in Eugene over the past 40 years has been Meredith Burch. I knew Meredith had a long history in documentaries and had her own business in Washington D.C. I took my idea to Meredith to see if she thought it could fly and we embarked on what has been a long journey of some seven years of very hard work. The biggest thrill for me was to meet the talented people who know how to do these things, and to marvel at the enormous range of expertise involved in bringing a fine story to public television.

Q. What would you like people to learn from the documentaries?

R.D.: What we show in the documentaries, and what I'd like people to take away, are the things brought out so well in Tom's book:

• The evolution of scientific discovery -- starting as alchemy and moving to modern experimental and theoretical investigation
• The amazing development of industrial applications from the study of cold, which has had an enormous influence on the way we live. Consider the invention of air conditioning, frozen foods, and medical applications of cryogenics such as MRIs.
• Modern discoveries such as Bose-Einstein condensates which only occur at temperatures near absolute zero whose eventual applications are hard to foresee today.

Q. Why do you think people should watch the documentaries?

R.D.: People will find this documentary very accessible. Our producers have worked hard and effectively to convey the story of cold without resort to the heavy lifting apparatus of equation and graphs needed to do physics research today. The material should be perfectly accessible to high school students. Examples of the races by scientists to achieve exciting goals are shown and interviews with contemporary physicists illustrate the "feel" of being in modern research at the frontiers of knowledge today.

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