  Key to resolving the scientific challenge of the glass transition is to
understand the origin of the massive increase in viscosity of liquids cooled
below their melting temperature (avoiding crystallisation). A number of
competing and often mutually exclusive theoretical approaches have been
advanced to describe this phenomenon. Some posit a bona fide thermodynamic
phase to an "ideal glass", an amorphous state with exceptionally low entropy.
Other approaches are built around the concept of the glass transition as a
primarily dynamic phenomenon. These fundamentally different interpretations
give equally good descriptions of the data available, so it is hard to
determine which -- if any -- is correct. Recently however this situation has
begun to change. A consensus has emerged that one powerful means to resolve
this longstanding question is to approach the putative thermodynamic transition
sufficiently closely, and a number of techniques have emerged to meet this
challenge. Here we review the results of some of these new techniques and
discuss the implications for the existence -- or otherwise -- of the
thermodynamic transition to an ideal glass.
