Adapted from an image (Copyrighted free use), via Wikimedia Commons.
1853–1926
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Dutch physicist whose Leiden laboratory reached temperatures colder than anyone before, winning him the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Elements
2HeHelium
1908
In Leiden, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes cooled helium to about 4 kelvin and collected a small cup of liquid, the coldest substance then made.
80HgMercury
1911
Cooling mercury in liquid helium, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes's team found that its electrical resistance fell to practically zero. It was the first superconductor.
Keep exploring
Where the dates and stories on this page come from; each event on the timeline links to its own source.
- Heike Kamerlingh OnnesEncyclopaedia Britannica
- Happy anniversary, liquid heliumLeiden University
- The discovery of superconductivityPhysics Today
- Heike Kamerlingh OnnesWikipedia