German chemist Walter H Nerst [public domain]
The
third law of thermodynamics (sometimes referred to as the
heat theorem or
unattainability principle) was postulated in 1912 by the German chemist
Walther H Nernst and states that it is impossible to reach, by any procedure, the coldest temperature possible: absolute zero (0K, or −273.15C or −459.67F, depending on your preferred choice of units). However, this statement was a matter of some controversy, as there was no real proof of it. Although Nernst spent many years defending his version, many scientists refused to accept it, including such heavyweights as
Max Planck and Albert Einstein. Both then started introducing their own
versions. Einstein, for example, believed that the third law of thermodynamics must rely on the principles of
quantum mechanics.
More than one hundred years went by and physicists and chemists from around the world were still debating the theorem, with some remaining unconvinced of its validity, given the lack of a proof.
However, a recently published paper in Nature Communications aims to clarify this debate. Researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London (UCL) have proven mathematically that it is impossible to reach absolute zero: we went to chat with one of them, Lluis Masanes.
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