TY - JOUR TI - Museums theme – Quest for Absolute Zero: A Human Story about Rivalry and Cold AU -Dirk van Delft PY - 2018 VL - IS - Autumn 2017 KW - cold KW - exhibition KW - Kamerlingh Onnes KW - liquid helium KW - storylines KW - target groups AB - In 2008 Rijksmuseum Boerhaave organised an exhibition on the occasion of the centennial of the liquefaction of helium by Kamerlingh Onnes in Leiden. Quest for Absolute Zero was the first major temporary exhibition aimed at new target groups. Therefore the focus was on the human scale and the colourful story behind the ‘man of Absolute Zero’. The fierce competition with James Dewar from the Royal Institution was also highlighted. The outcome of Quest for Absolute Zero was extremely positive for Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in terms of visitor numbers, media coverage, collaborations and side events. The project also proved to be a very useful lever for the renewal of the permanent exhibition, scheduled to open in December 2017. N1 - In 1956, by means of nuclear adiabatic demagnetization, Francis Simon from Oxford University attained a low record temperature of 0.0000016 kelvin. From then on, the coldest place on Earth was never again in Leiden. PB - The Science Museum Group SN - 2054-5770 LA - eng DO - 10.15180/170812 UR - https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/quest-for-absolute-zero/ T2 - Science Museum Group Journal