Customer Reviews

Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

No figures? No diagrams? How can you tell an interesting story about the physics of low temperature without showing even simple line diagrams of some of the revolutionary apparatus used to reach such low temperatures? You'll find no photos of the main researchers, either, so you end up with names instead of personalities.

Characters pop in and out with confusing frequency, and I never got the feeling that some of them completely connect to the web of the story. Pioneer Carl Linde drops out on page 110 to reappear on page 153.

Technical errors, such as calling solid carbon dioxide "carbonic acid" (it's dry ice), and describing helium II, a low-temperature liquid, and then talking about helium-3, an isotope of helium, will confuse many readers. Esaki diodes haven't been called that in years--they're tunnel diodes. The errors don't detract from the main story, but technical people will find they get annoying.

An interesting story, but told in the form of "light" science. Was the author rushing to meet a deadline? Check it out of your library.

For a book with this much detail about such a complex topic not to have a single illustration, diagram, or equation cannot be an oversight. I'm not sure if the author really wants to give you the illusion that he is allowing you to understand the relevant physics or not. He delves endlessly into the upbringing of the various scientists, and fails miseraby at making lay people understand what it is they dicovered. Many times he mentions scienfic findings in a context that makes one wonder if the equation or experiment turned out to be a cornerstone of later discovery or a red herring. I therefore conjecture that this book was meant to be primarily a history of competition and petty bickering among academics, and the title refers to how much you will learn about the physical forces responsible for low temperatures. The comparisons to "Longitude", (an excellent book), are apt in that both books focus on the egos and disputes involved, but "Longitude" traces the fight over the lifespan of one man, who ultimately triumphs despite long odds. If that book had been carried through with the same tone until it became a breathless account of how Bullova can outsell Rolex in 1992, I would also have given it 2 stars.

One of the promotional statements on the book's jacket describes it as being similar to David Sobel's book "Longitude." I agree. There are some distinct similarities, and I think that if you liked "Longitude," you will probably enjoy "Absolute Zero" every bit as much.

Though this is a good book it's not quite what I was looking for. The book is strictly a history book, while I was looking for something that would have emphasized the scientific aspects more than Shachtman does. For example, the book describes the work by scientists to get as close as possible to absolute zero, but it never gives an adequate definition of what absolute zero really is. While it would have taken some mathematics and a little physics, a better description of the physics would have added considerably to this book. [For a good discussion of the physics - still at an introductory level - I suggest "Temperatures Very Low and Very High," by Mark W. Zemansky. This book, published by Dover, has only 127 pages. So the price is right, and it makes a nice companion volume (read it first) to Shachtman's book.]

Another thing that bothered me about this book is that it has no figures or illustrations. That's a big problem for a book that is constantly trying to describe this or that configuration of scientific equipment. There are at least a dozen places in the text where I found myself reading it and then reading it over again, trying to understand some convoluted description of apparatus when a simple diagram would have taken care of the problem.

A third problem I have with this book is the author's occasional lapse in describing scientific principles. For example, he describes quantum-mechanical tunneling as a process "in which the particles do not overcome the energy of the atoms in their way but instead find a route between the atoms in the wall." [p. 227] This is a very misleading description of quantum-mechanical tunneling. In another place he describes the speeds of particles in a particle accelerator: "physicists had relied for investigation of these latter particles on linear accelerators that raised the particles' speed to several thousand miles per hour and let them smash into obstacles, or each other, and disintegrate into interesting pieces." [p. 231] This statement has the particles in an accelerator traveling about the same speed as an SR-71 jet. In reality, particle accelerators move atomic particles at nearly the speed of light, or virtually 186,000 miles per second.

So my greatest objection to the book is that it was written by an historian and not a scientist.

But don't infer from my comments that I think this is a bad book. I really did like it, and found it engaging and difficult to put down. One of the best aspects of this book is the way it illustrates the conflict and competition between scientists. Sometimes there is a tendency to have an antiseptic view of science, in which noble individuals, in white coats, struggle against ignorance for the betterment of society. Not so. In reality there were intense rivalries and bitter feuds, and these are laid out bare in the human struggle that Shachtman describes in his story of the conquest of cold.

The book not only describes the historical progress among scientists, but also describes the influence that the technology of generating cold temperatures had on more practical aspects of society. There is some very interesting historical information about the natural-ice industry that existed prior to development of modern-day refrigeration, and how the ice was cut up at the end of the winter and put into storage, and then shipped to regions around the world.

There are also stories about how the invention of modern refrigeration facilitated settling in the southern portions of the United States. Mostly, though, the stories focus on the scientists who spent their lives and sometimes livelihoods trying to get closer and closer to absolute zero.

The book is pretty up to date, and includes historical developments around the invention of high-temperature super conductors (high temperature, in this case, being over 77 K, which is the temperature at which nitrogen liquefies). There is also some history around the verification of the Bose-Einstein condensate at 170 billions of a degree K.

Overall I think this is a fine book. It was certainly captivating, well written, and enjoyable.

This is a good book to read to clear your head of non-science, particularly if you are not a scientist. It achieves the goal of the Sloan Foundation funding, which is to popularize science by disconnecting it from the diagrams and equations that some of the other reviewers here are lamenting the absence of. Well, that's what made it so readable for me. I like science but not math. At least not sciency-math. We learn from this book that it is the businessmen who have fueled applied cold research, and many people who also are ignorant of math have benefitted from the resulting frozen food industry and from air conditioning. All products of the very deliberate conquest of Thule, very engagingly explained by the author. This book reminds me of how appropriate the chief guy (what's his name, "Lee"? Anyway, the guy who won't let you chew gum in the airport there) in Singapore's comments were in the Wall Street Journal, when they asked a cross section of famous people what the greatest invention of the last millenium has been. His reply: "Air conditioning." It all makes sense when you read this on the beach, before heading to your air conditioned condo, or to your air conditioned car, to get your keys to go get pre-cooled cokes from the refrigerator unit at the air conditioned 7-11, right next to the Slurpee machine and the little display of fresh fruit. I agree with some of the reviews that the book is a little disjointed, but offer that this in turn illuminates some of the idiosyncracies of several key scientists who would, for example, devote 15 years to trying to boil helium. Whatever you do for a living, compared to that, seems like a breeze. A cool breeze. Which you can feel without quantifying via incomprehensible, gnostic and exlusivist equations whose chief function is to blur this science beyond comprehensibility for long-winded reviewers like me.

I'm really interesting in the pursuit of absolute zero. And this seemed like the book. I confess, I've struggled with it, even trying to skip sections, but I just can't make it through it. It's not just that it's historical rather than scientific writing -- I expected that. It's that Shachtman seems to follow the Kitchen Sink theory of writing, and has to insert every factoid he possesses about every story, whether it's relevant or not.

For instance, his opening story -- a grabber about one of the first public presentations of cooling a room -- starts off well enough with Cornelis Drebbel. And it would be a good story. However, soon, we're into the family histories of everyone even tangentially connected. Did we really need to know (we're just on page 5 mind you, the experiment hasn't even begun) that "Assisting Drebbel were, in all likelihood, Abraham and Jacob Kuffler, Dutch brothers who had come to England that year, begun apprenticeships with him, and concocted a scheme in which one or the other would marry Drebbel's daughter..."

Here we have a digression which is not only irrelevant, but also pertaining to two men who may not even have been present. This sort of writing is not just irritating, it's downright discouraging. And symptomatic of the whole book. So disappointing... I was really looking forward to reading this one. Purchase at your own peril.

I love this book as history of science -- the development of thermometers, then the redefinition of "heat" in a way that didn't require a hypothetical "caloric fluid," then the conception of entropy -- the movement of the universe toward a "heat death" and so forth. All great stuff, grippingly told.

The only parts I didn't like were digressions into the history of business and industry. There is nothing wrong with telling the history of business (air conditioning, frozen foods, etc.), but that's not why one buys this book. Taking the digressions out would have let TS beef up the more fascinating stories, and perhaps add diagrams.

I don't normally rate books here but was recommending this oneto a friend and checked to see if Amazon had it in stock. When I sawit only had one review, I decided to add my own. This is a good book. Anyone with a general interest in science or science history should enjoy it. It's easy reading, but perhaps too light on the actual science for the average reader. As the above reviewer notes, the author may not have a strong background in the subject, which shows at times. For example, I'm certainly not a chemist but I also thought the author confused Carbonic Acid (IIRC H2CO3, the stuff in soft drinks from dissolved CO2) with dry ice, unless that's a historical term for it? I also felt the last chapter was a bit rushed to bring the story up to present day. That last chapter should be expanded in to several chapters to present a better view on what has been accomplished in this field in the last few decades. But nitpicking aside, I enjoyed this book and recommend it. I hope this author writes more books like this one.

I got the distinct impression that the author lost interest in his own work somewhere after the third chapter, but had already spent his advance and was forced to finish writing it. The science is misleading (I think he mentioned "vaccuming off lighter molecules" of the same gas in the Kammerleigh Onnes section, maybe forgetting that identical molecules all have the same molecular weight unless we are talking isotopes, but hey, who wants to bother getting the scientific fundamentals straight when we can gossip about Tydall and Dewar's little falling out...). This book is a exaggerated People magazine retelling of the search to attain Absolute Zero. The author would have been wise to try speaking to a few living scientists to get a feel for the real challenges, frustrations, and joys of doing research rather than investing so much energy in "he said, she said" stories. I think the telling of this story would best have been left to someone with a better understanding of physics and the art of doing scientific research. From my own experience, research is no more a "wild ride" than gardening, or a long hike. It's joys are subtle but persistent, not a point this author ever seems to have understood.

Tom Shachtman brings his broad learning and compact writing style to the subject of cold. Result: 240 well-crafted pages on what is arguably the most exciting frontier in science.
We travel from Sir Francis Bacon and the West's beginning of expositional science to 1990s cooling experiments on the edge of absolute zero and the heart of matter in 13 paragraphs that neatly boil away jargon.
The sociology is first rate as well. Shachtman's exposition of roundaboutness, especially how the refrigerator helped destroy the American Indians (p. 114, 1999 hardback edition), should shake the faith of market absolutists. There are winners and losers, as the explanation of how Chicago and Kansas City became big meat-packing centers shows. Does everyone "win" in the long-term, as the market fundamentalist may believe? Ummmm...not necessarily.
Which leads us to Shachtman's materialistic definition of "civilization." No doubt cold technology and other scientific developments are major reasons people in industrialized countries are living longer. So this aspect of the discussion is rightfully materialistic. But don't take "the advance of civilization" to mean character improvement being linked to technological innovations. The link, if there is one, behaves quite unevenly. It might be well be likened to the quantum physics Shachtman touches on in the book - starts and stops, jumps by leaps and bounds, and doesn't always move in a desirable direction.
The terseness and completeness of our author's differentiation between classical physics and quantum physics is better than any I've read. I won't spoil it for you. Go to p. 194 and behold. It's sure to stick with you.
None of Shachtman's 25 books have dealt specifically with religion and that shows in "Absolute Zero." He tries to debunk some religious doctrines but he's out of his depth.
Lord Kelvin's thermodynamics and Darwin's evolution theory are brought together to "cast doubt on the existence of G-d." Sorry, not even close. Why can't people like Shachtman and Richard Dawkins realize an omnipotent G-d can do anything including making a 5,772-year-old world look billions of years old? Even the great David Hume swung and missed at this one when he said that nature defeats belief in miracles. Oh, contraire. It's all a miracle and G-d built what Hume calls miracles into what Hume calls nature. Rabbeinu Yehudah HaLevi is being supremely scientific in "The Kuzari" when he writes "If we make creation a postulate, all that is difficult becomes easy, and all that is crooked straight..." (p. 270, 1964 paperback edition).
Kelvin was the last of the great classical physicists. His reading of Psalm 102 reflects sound reasoning where as Shachtman's critique does not. Shachtman should view the Holy Torah and classical physics as Einstein viewed them - forever brimming with importance and never out of fashion to the open mind. Einstein brought back relativity from ancient Greece and light/particle theory back from Newtonian physics, something Shachtman appears unaware of. Shachtman is too intent on entering the Brave New World and/or getting on to his next book.
Our author has done excellent work on cold and should revisit the subject. James Dewar's lecture (p. 126) told us that the descent to absolute zero opens up many fields. Although unremarked upon by Shachtman, the work of Henri Poincaire showed absolute zero and the speed of light to be constants around which so much revolves. An updated edition of "Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold" would bring us greater understanding of matter, hopefully giving us greater appreciation for the glory that surrounds us.

Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold is a good book that includes enough information to discover the history of cold, but is written with a narrative tone which interests the reader. The information is presented well and with enough description for the reader to understand clearly, but there are no diagrams or illustrations, which makes it hard to sort the relevance of the information. With no credible sources, the information deems to be questionable in truth. This book lacks references and the truth is tainted by the vague explanations of the scientific methods with no hard evidence. This book delves into the lives and personalities of the scientists more-so than the scientific and research aspects of the conquest of cold. The information is presented as a story, which makes it easier for the reader to understand. The story aspect of this book is great, but it lacks in credibility and in the science aspect. This book is good for anyone with a fascination for the history of cold told from a historian's point of view, rather than a scientist's.