10. Refrigeration breakthrough takes Chinese quantum science near absolute zero

The Institute of Physics, affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said on July 12 that it has developed a prototype refrigerator to realize this ultra-low temperature just 0.01 degrees Celsius higher than absolute zero, which is -273.15 degrees Celsius.

Unlike the traditional dilution refrigerator, the prototype runs without using liquid helium. In June the new device was tested to ensure it could operate continuously for a long period of time at about -273.14 degrees Celsius. The device targets a bottleneck problem in quantum computing and is widely used in condensed matter physics, material science, particle physics, and astronomical exploration.