This film shows the low temperature lab at St Andrews University, Scotland; Jack F. Allen, a Canadian, (retired from the chair of physics) demonstrated equipment, including the set-up he used to make films of 'superfluid helium'. Some introductory matter by Shelagh Ross; John Walter (middle-aged, bearded) provided the official theory, introducing phase diagrams, graphics with 'fermions' and 'bosons' and so on.
All this is part of the ideology of 'superfluid' helium:
it's mysterious, and incomprehensible except to an elite familiar with 'Cooper pairs' of electrons and so on. It's an important part of the entire construction of b2c datasets quantum theory. To present, I've listed in sequence all the supposedly surprising things about 'superfluid helium' taken from this Open University programme:- “It remains liquid down to absolute zero.. This is quite unique to helium.. it needs at least 25 atmospheres before it solidifies..” Actually, the finely-divided powder, misinterpreted as a liquid.
In the same state down to absolute
zero; it's already a solid! The point about pressure is that any powder under enough compression will appear to be solid: think of coffee packaged in vacuum-sealed bags, where the one-atmosphere external air pressure makes it seem 'solid'. The point about ‘at least’ 25 atmospheres pressure is that the dividing line from the supposed solid is vague, so of course there's no precise figure for the pressure needed. For years physicists have puzzled over the way inert gases behave when frozen, without realising the explanation.