QDIS Blog

Nova episode “Conquest of Cold”

by Ed Vawter @ 2:53 pm. Filed under Science

As you may have noticed I’ve had some time to get caught up on programs I tivo’ed. Another program I really enjoyed was Nova’s “Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold” which you can watch online for free.

I’ve always been a big fan of Nova and it is on my season pass on my tivo. My only disappointment was how it ended and I won’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it but thought they could have done more. Then I find out there is going to be another follow on called “Absolute Zero: The Race for Absolute Zero”. I’m hoping my disappointment will be cured with this next episode. It is set to air on Jan 15 at 8 pm at least according to the PBS website.

I highly recommend this Nova episode for anyone with even a passing interest in science. They did an excellent job of covering the history of the study of cold and even though I’ve been a life long scientists, I still learned something, especially about the first use of “air conditioning”.

I am constantly amazed at how little knowledge some of my fellow scientist have of the history of science Many do not seem to be at all interested in the historical aspects of science but I think you can learn a lot about science itself and how it interfaces with society by understanding where we come from. A great example of the history of science not being taught in the area of chemistry (my special area of interest) is the program “Forgotten Genius - Percy Julian“. Although I have taken a course on the history of chemistry and read a couple of books about the history of chemistry and had never heard of Percy Julian. You can also view this program online for free and read a lot of other information on this black chemist and his accomplishments.

I always enjoy these sort of science and history related shows and this reminds me a lot of the Connections series with James Burke that the BBC did several years ago. I really wish TLC of Discover would re-air those episodes. You can still get them on DVD but they are expensive; $149 for 5 DVD ten programs. Connections 2 is also available for the same cost but it doesn’t look like Connections 3 is available.

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