Since what matters is not just the absolute temperature level but the rate of change as well, it makes sense to try to slow down the increase.

ECONOMIST: Blowing hot and cold

Anthony Hopkins plays Stevens, a butler who has given long and faithful service at Darlington Hall and maintained his emotional temperature at absolute zero.

NEWYORKER: The Remains of the Day

These atoms are cooled to a temperature of only a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, the coldest possible temperature, at which all motion stops.

BBC: A Bose-Einstein condensate: It slows down light

Their tool, the Bose-Einstein condensate, is a superchilled soup of matter that can be created only when the temperature is near absolute zero.

ECONOMIST: Black holes on a desktop

It still bathes the Earth in a near-uniform glow at microwave frequencies, and has a temperature profile that is just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.

BBC: Planck satellite: Maps detail Universe's ancient light

This slows down the movement, and hence the temperature, of its atoms to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.

ECONOMIST: An old thought experiment may soon be realised