Absolute Zero Isn’t Just Cold—It Just Shattered a Century of Thermodynamics Beliefs
In a stunning twist worthy of a Netflix docuseries, a professor from the University of Seville has cracked a 120-year-old physics puzzle—and in doing so, quietly rewrote one of Einstein’s biggest thermodynamic assumptions.
Since the early 1900s, scientists have debated what happens as we approach the coldest temperature in the universe: absolute zero (that’s –273.15°C, where all atomic motion practically stops). German chemist Walther Nernst claimed that as temperatures approach absolute zero, the amount of disorder—or entropy—also approaches zero. He was so convincing that he snagged a Nobel Prize in 1920. This idea became known as the third law of thermodynamics.
But a young Albert Einstein wasn’t buying it. In 1912, he argued that Nernst’s theory couldn’t be linked to the second law of thermodynamics—the one that says energy always spreads out and nothing’s 100% efficient. Einstein insisted that Nernst’s law was a separate rule entirely.
For over a century, Einstein’s view stuck, until now.
Enter Professor José María Martín-Olalla, who just did what no one thought possible: he proved that Nernst’s rule isn’t a standalone law at all—it naturally follows from the second law. Translation? The third law was never a separate law to begin with. It’s just a well-hidden consequence of an already existing principle. Einstein’s elegant separation? Torn down in a blaze of mathematical clarity.
“The second law of thermodynamics would extend its applicability,” Martín-Olalla writes, “and the third postulate would narrow to a simple fact: the entropy of matter at absolute zero must not be negative.”
The Invisible Engine That Changes Everything
Martín-Olalla’s proof doesn’t rely on a new machine or flashy experiment. Instead, he proposes a thought experiment: a virtual engine that never actually runs. It neither produces energy nor consumes heat. It simply exists as a ghost in the equations—a way to understand the rules of the thermodynamic game.
This ghost engine, he shows, implies two major things:
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Entropy vanishes as temperature approaches absolute zero.
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You can never, ever actually reach absolute zero.
Sound familiar? That’s exactly what Nernst said in 1905—but now it’s rooted directly in the second law, Einstein said it couldn’t come from.
Einstein, the revolutionary of his time, is now the one being respectfully corrected.
It Matters Even for Your Smartphone
This isn’t just a professor’s pet project. The way we understand thermodynamics drives everything from quantum computing and superconductors to cryogenics and energy efficiency. As we get closer to absolute zero in cutting-edge labs, understanding what actually happens down there isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.
And while Nernst and Einstein debated using pen and paper, today’s technologies operate in the icy frontiers of near-zero temperatures. Getting the math right now could unlock entirely new materials or boost quantum tech performance.
A Bold Rewrite of the Physics Curriculum?
Martín-Olalla says most physics textbooks still teach the three laws as separate entities. And they still echo Einstein’s century-old objection to linking the second and third. But that may soon change.
His work—already published in The European Physical Journal Plus—is beginning to ripple across the academic world. His students at the University of Seville are among the first to learn this new, unified view of thermodynamics. It’s only a matter of time before others follow.
But don’t expect the physics world to flip overnight.
“Challenging Einstein is not for the faint of heart,” one might say. But Martín-Olalla did it not out of rebellion—but out of logic.
And that’s how science moves forward.
