Science speaks of few absolutes. One of the few is absolute zero: 273.16 centigrade. At this temperature, the haphazard motion of the molecules (the action called heat) is wholly stilled. Close to this point of death-still cold, matter acts in strange ways. Liquid helium climbs out of containers; the electrical resistance of metals disappears. Because scientists see stranger phenomena the closer they get to absolute zero, experimenters like to imagine working their way down to the very bottom of the temperature scale.
In the current Scientific Monthly, Dr. John F. Allen of St. Andrews University, Scotland, tells how they are going about...
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