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Scientists Set New Coldest Temperature Record

Posted by michael on from the wear-your-mittens dept.

one_who_uses_unix writes "Scientists recently successfully cooled a gas to the coldest temperature ever recorded ABC News reports. This is good news for proponents of basic research (read non-applied) which has seen shrinking budgets over the past few decades, and for overclockers hoping to squeeze 1 more cycle out of their CPUs."

6 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Low temperatures scare me by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative
    The chances are that they'll never hit absolute zero, it'll just get harder and harder the closer they get. If you look at the methods used here - lowering pressure, removing hotter atoms, slowing atoms using lasers pretty much none of them does anything beyond reduce the temperature by a percentage.

    You might look at it in a similar vein to reaching the speed of light. As your mass increases exponentially the closer you get to the speed of light, you'd have used up all the energy in the universe to accelerate long before you "get there".

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  2. Overclockers ? by $exyNerdie · · Score: 4, Insightful


    and for overclockers hoping to squeeze 1 more cycle out of their CPUs

    How does such a low temperature help in overclocking ?
    Article says:
    "At less than 1 nanokelvin, the atoms screech to a crawl, moving only one inch every 30 seconds. "

    Does anyone else also think that "overclocking" was mentioned just to get attention of /. editors ??

    1. Re:Overclockers ? by one_who_uses_unix · · Score: 4, Funny

      As a matter of fact, you are correct, I mentioned overclockers to get their attention. This was a blatant attempt to introduce humor into the otherwise serene and serious atmosphere maintained on /. If I could retract the sentence and replace it with....

      "No facetious observations regarding the relationship between extremely low temperatures and overclocking are permitted."

      I have a few comments on this observation that should server to vindicate me in the mind of those who might be concerned by the gratuitous use of technology buzzwords:

      1. What is wrong with getting /. editor's attention?
      2. Smile - you will find it is healthy.
      3. Made ya look.

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      KK4SFV
  3. Amazing... by feidaykin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The last time a new record was set, a scientist was quoted saying that if there was a colder temperature anywhere in the universe, it was in the lab of an alien civilization.

    I would imagine his opinion would remain unchanged by this new record...

    This is the coldest known place in the universe: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030220.html

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    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

  4. Re:Low temperatures scare me by QuantumFTL · · Score: 5, Informative

    The chances are that they'll never hit absolute zero

    You're more right than you know. According to current quantum mechanics (which has been tested inside and out), the Heizenberg uncertainty principle states that the more you know about the velocity of a partical, the less you can know about its position, etc. In other words, the uncertainties must multiply together to be greater than plank's constant divided by 2PI. As temperature approaches absolute zero, the uncertainty in momentum (which is a functional of thermal energy at that point, which is proportional to temperature) decreases. This causes the uncertainty in posiition to drastically increase.

    Anyways at absolute zero this would mean the uncertainty in position would become infinite, in other words the position of the particle would be completely undefined. This is not possible so thus Absolute Zero is unattainable, even in theory.

    Disclaimer: I'm still working on my degree, and I was in a hurry writing this. Please correct me if you can :)

  5. Re:Low temperatures scare me by Alsee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    logarithmic mapping

    Good idea. Here is a logarithmic (base 10) scale:

    Core of a supernova: 9.2
    Highest man made (1996): 8.7
    Core of the Sun: 7.2
    Surface of the Sun: 3.75
    Water boils: 2.57
    Human body temperature: 2.49
    Room temperature: 2.47
    Water freezes: 2.44
    Liquid oxygen: 1.95
    Dark side of the moon: 1.95
    Pluto: 1.68
    Deepest depths of space: 0.44 (Cosmic microwave background)
    Boomerang Nebula, coldest natural place in the universe: roughly zero
    Coldest man made (1995): -6.77
    Coldest man made (today): -9.3

    Man made (-9.3) is as much colder than coldest place in the natural universe (zero) as the core of a supernova (9.2) is hotter than the coldest place in the natural universe.

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