Chilled

How Refrigeration Changed the World and Might Do So Again

By: Tom Jackson

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Paperback | 3 February 2026 | Edition Number 3

At a Glance

Paperback
274 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 1.58

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Heat and fire have been at humanity's command for at least 100,000 years, but we've been in control of the cold for barely one hundred. Why it took so long is quite a story. Controlling cold would involve gnomes, performing maggots and a fresh chicken bought in a blizzard. And that control has transformed our relationship with food, but it also makes space flight and quantum computers possible - and party balloons. And one day we might use cold to drive a teleportation machine or suspend the moment of death forever. In Chilled, science writer Tom Jackson delivers the cold, hard facts on our battle to keep things refrigerated, from the ice houses of Persia to today, and shows that the whirring box in the kitchen represents a genuine wonder of civilisation.

Industry Reviews

Buoyant, idiosyncratic and very funny ... this history of what is, ultimately, a rather mundane piece of kitchenware is consistently fascinating. Cool story.

Financial Times

... A chill-cabinet of curiosities: hot stuff, and deeply cool ...

The Spectator

Jackson sees the appliance as 'humanity's greatest achievement' ... Chilled attests to his abilities as a historian and a bit of a comedian.

Times Literary Supplement

In his entertaining new book, Chilled, Jackson walks us through the creation of cold - or, at least, man-made cold. He explains how frigid air made all sorts of things possible, from the variety of food we eat to the hydrogen bomb.

The Washington Post

Fun and eye-opening ... this is an inspiring, compelling and utterly convincing book.

The Sunday Times

... Plenty of fascinating stuff.

The Times

Jackson handles tricky ideas deftly ... like a well-stocked refrigerator, this book is packed with tasty morsels.

BBC Focus

Without refrigeration, this delightfully illuminating book reminds us, not only would there be no ice cream or cold lager, there would be no MRI scanners in hospitals, no super-computers, no weekly food shop.

The Mail on Sunday

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