Absolute Zero - Episode Guide

The Conquest of Cold charts the attempts of many great names in science such as Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday and Antoinne Lavoisier to grapple with the perplexing mystery of cold. Beginning with the father of air conditioning, a 17th century alchemist, who turned summer into winter inside the Great Hall of Westminster; and ending with the father of frozen food, Clarence Birdseye, this film traces the remarkable history of how science enabled us to conquer the cold.

A second race unfolded 100 years later, towards the end of the 20th century, as scientists attempted to produce a Bose Einstein Condensate, a new state of matter predicted by Einstein.

With the winner of each scientific race going on to win the Nobel Prize for their work, ultra-cold research has proved to be one of the most competitive fields of modern science.