The coolest experiments in the world - The world of ultra-low temperatures
- Brötchen-und-Borussia
Lecture in the series "Brötchen und Borussia" by Prof. Dr. Marc Aßmann and Dr. Jörg Debus (TU Dortmund)
The coolest experiments in the world - The world of ultra-low temperatures
The village of Oimjakon in Siberia is considered the coldest inhabited place on Earth, with temperatures as low as -67.8°C. Although this temperature seems extremely low to us, it is almost extremely warm when viewed on a cosmic scale: In space itself, temperatures of -270.4°C prevail. In the world of ultracold physics, exciting phenomena occur that are completely unknown to us in everyday life: Substances take on completely new states of aggregation, electricity flows without electrical resistance, and objects suddenly begin to float. To reach this world, researchers realize temperatures that are up to 10 million times colder than space. In the lecture, we explain what this specification actually means, how such temperatures can be achieved, why the world behaves so unfamiliarly at this extreme cold, and why we all exploit ultra-low temperatures every day with our smartphones. Plus, of course, we'll demonstrate the coolest experiments in the world live in the lecture hall.