Press Release

Absolute Zero

Premieres on NOVA

 

From refrigeration to MRIs, the study of cold has transformed modern life.  NOVA invites you on a journey through time from the first alchemists who tried to manufacture cold to the modern-era Nobel Laureates who strived to reach its ultimate destination: Absolute Zero.

Cold.  We take it for granted every time we open a refrigerator or switch on an air conditioner.  Yet the conquest of cold is a triumph of science and technology – as important in the modern world as our mastery of heat.  This exploration of the cold frontier is a great saga of science that has led to space travel, quantum computers and frozen food.

This winter, NOVA chronicles the race to conquer cold in the film Absolute Zero.  Produced by Emmy-Award winning producer David Dugan in collaboration with executive producer Meredith Burch, and based on Tom Shachtman’s book, Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, this NOVA special will be presented as two hour-long programs on January 8 and January 15 at 8:00 p.m. (check local listings).

Absolute Zero features the struggle of philosophers, scientists and engineers over four centuries as they attempt to understand the nature of cold, from dark beginnings to an ultra-cold end point.  Along the way they created cold technologies that have transformed the way we live, and gained insights into the nature of matter itself.  NOVA brings this frosty subject to life using a combination of colorful historic recreations and insightful interviews with science historians and Nobel Prize winners.

Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold (January 8) begins with 17th century court magician Cornelius Drebbel, who successfully created the world's first air-conditioning system in Westminster Abbey.  Other memorable characters include Daniel Fahrenheit and Anders Celsius who created the first thermometers; Frederic Tudor who became one of the richest men in America simply deciding to farm and sell ice; and Clarence Birdseye who made his name with frozen food.

Absolute Zero: The Race for Absolute Zero (January 15) tells the gripping story of the decades-long scientific race between Scottish physicist James Dewar and Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, as the two men fought to reach the coldest temperature.  Their discoveries opened the door to the modern era of refrigeration and air conditioning.  Absolute Zero’s final chapter climaxes in the Nobel-winning breakthrough, the production of a new form of matter that Albert Einstein predicted would exist within a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero.  This is a temperature so cold that the physical world as we know it transforms completely, electricity and fluids flow without resistance, and the speed of light can be reduced to 38 miles per hour.  Three men, in two different labs, were awarded the Nobel Prize for being the first to see the peculiar state of matter that occurs near absolute zero.

Rich reenactments, eccentric characters, and the scientists’ compelling story-telling will leave viewers with insights into the extraordinary science of cold, as they travel on this epic journey towards absolute zero.

“I hope viewers come away from the documentaries with a new appreciation of the thought and care that scientists have put into the study of cold over almost four centuries,” says author Tom Shachtman.  “The films are a testament to what motivates and energizes all of science – our insatiable curiosity about the world in which we exist.”

Absolute Zero was produced by Windfall Films in collaboration with Meridian Productions.  David Dugan, producer/director; Meredith Burch, executive producer and co-producer. Tom Shachtman, writer; Justin Badger, editor; Russell J. Donnelly, principal scientific consultant.

Absolute Zero was made possible by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the BBC.

Now entering its 35th year of broadcasting, NOVA is produced for PBS by the WGBH Science Unit at WGBH Boston.  The director of the WGBH Science Unit and senior executive producer of NOVA is Paula S. Apsell.  Funding for NOVA is provided by The DOW Chemical Company, David H. Koch, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and public television viewers.

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