It's not possible to achieve absolute zero in practice, because no system is completely isolated from all the heat in the universe. But science has gotten very close to it. Milli has been experimenting lately with supercooling techniques involving adiabatic nuclear demagnetization. Recently, she achieved a record low temperature of 99 pK in her lab (that's pico Kelvin, or just trillionths of a degree above absolute zero).

The other reference point was 0.01 degrees Celsius, defined as the triple point of VSMOW. VSMOW is Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water, a water standard that precisely specifies the ratios of different isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, thereby eliminating the problem that not all water is exactly the same. And its triple point is the temperature at which liquid water, ice, and water vapor coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium.

So while the Celsius scale underwent some significant changes, 0 degrees remained very close to the freezing point of water, and 100 degrees remained very close to the boiling point of water. It was a pretty good scale, but was there an even better one?

The main problem with the Celsius scale, at least from a scientist's perspective (or a New York mesothelioma lawyer's perspective) is that it's a relative scale, not an absolute one. Consider two thermometers, one that's reading 50 degrees Celsius, and one that's reading 100 degrees Celsius. Does the thermometer reading 100 degrees represent twice the heat energy of the one reading 50 degrees?

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