TO IMAGINE running your manner down the temperature scale into the geographical regions of excessive bloodless, you may begin with the internal of an business freezer. At about -18°C (0°F), it’s far uncomfortable, however bearable with a few heat clothes. Now, flip your thoughts to the -60°C (-76°F) or in order that explorers enjoy at some stage in the Antarctic winter, a temperature so excessive it may wreck human flesh. And then, for the last in bloodless, consider area itself at -270°C.

Except, it’d wonder you to listen that the coldest locations withinside the universe aren’t in area, however withinside the physics departments of many universities. Here, during the last few decades, researchers had been contriving approaches to attain ever toward the coldest viable temperature, absolute zero. In the process, we’ve entered a brand new realm wherein weird states of be counted can glide uphill, chemical reactions may be paused and clothier substances may be assembled.

Now, though, the conquest of bloodless is coming into a brand new section as we construct the last cooling technology: the quantum fridge. Power up this type of last cooling machines, and matters get stranger still, with warmth flowing backwards and temperature itself ceasing to have any meaning.

The query of what it manner for some thing to chill is hundreds of years old. In 450 BC, the Greek truth seeker Parmenides idea up frigidum primum, a hypothetical substance that turned into as bloodless as viable and will imbue different gadgets with coldness.