Absolute Zero

Episode 1

Episode 2

In the Press

"Enthralling and baffling in equal measure."
The Guardian

"I can safely say - it is the coolest thing in the world."
Evening Standard

"Physics meets limbo dancing - with some great characters thrown in."
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian

The Series

In the last hundred years cold has transformed the way we live and work. It is hard to imagine life without refrigeration, air conditioning and liquefied gases - used in everything from MRI scanners to space rockets.

Absolute Zero is the ultimate limit of cold – a Holy Grail - as exciting for scientists as the North and South Poles were to the great polar explorers. This is the story of an epic journey in the quest for cold, from the dark beginnings to an ultra-cool frontier.

Episode 1 - The Conquest of Cold Solving the perplexing mystery of cold - beginning with the early superstars of science and ending with the father of frozen food - Clarence Birdseye.

Episode 2 - The Race for Absolute Zero This film charts the intense competition between rival scientists as they plunge ever further down the temperature scale to reach their Holy Grail - Absolute Zero.

Credits

Producer & Director

Editor

Executive Producer

Production Manager

Funded by

The National Science Foundation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Writer

Tom Schachtman
David Dugan

Narrator

Jim Carter

2x60' for BBC4, NOVA/WGBH, ARTE

Distributed by PBS International