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The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe
What conceptual blind spot kept the ancient Greeks (unlike the Indians and Maya) from developing a concept of zero? Why did St. Augustine equate nothingness with the Devil? What tortuous means did 17th-century scientists employ in their attempts to create a vacuum? And why do contemporary quantum physicists believe that the void is actually seething with subatomic activity? You’ll find the answers in this dizzyingly erudite and elegantly explained book by the English cosmologist John D. Barrow.
Ranging through mathematics, theology, philosophy, literature, particle physics, and cosmology, The Book of Nothing explores the enduring hold that vacuity has exercised on the human imagination. Combining high-wire speculation with a wealth of reference that takes in Freddy Mercury and Shakespeare alongside Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, the result is a fascinating excursion to the vanishing point of our knowledge.
Ranging through mathematics, theology, philosophy, literature, particle physics, and cosmology, The Book of Nothing explores the enduring hold that vacuity has exercised on the human imagination. Combining high-wire speculation with a wealth of reference that takes in Freddy Mercury and Shakespeare alongside Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, the result is a fascinating excursion to the vanishing point of our knowledge.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
86 people are currently reading
2711 people want to read
About the author
John D. Barrow
89 books166 followersJohn D. Barrow was a professor of mathematical sciences and director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He was awarded the 2006 Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" for his "writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding [which] have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion".
He was a member of a United Reformed Church, which he described as teaching "a traditional deistic picture of the universe".
He was awarded the 2006 Templeton Prize for "Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities" for his "writings about the relationship between life and the universe, and the nature of human understanding [which] have created new perspectives on questions of ultimate concern to science and religion".
He was a member of a United Reformed Church, which he described as teaching "a traditional deistic picture of the universe".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
September 19, 2007
Quantum physics, if it is real, requires that there be no such thing as nothing. Ergo, nothing is real. And maybe, even, everything is nothing. And John D. Barrow gets 3 stars instead of 4 for assuming I already had six Ph.D's by the time I decided to read this book. (Did anybody read Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits? Yeah. Exactly.) And despite the fact that I didn't understand the majority of what he was saying (though I did feel a wisp of air over my head at times, and that's close), I thought The Book of Nothing was fascinating and hard to put down. It did kind of reinforce my neophytic theory that quantum physics may well be little more than pseudo-religious philosophy with fancy math attached. But it also made me jealous that even if people like Barrow can't speak my language (words, sentences, etc.), for better or worse, he gets to speak the language of "God" (math, numbers, decimals, assorted bits of what looks like Latin). All of it in an effort to partially explain man's long and complicated relationship with the concept of "nothing" (re: "irony"), and how modern cosmology is changing that conception (re: "cosmic irony"). The philosophical implications of this book led me toward my own rather brilliant thought experiments in alcohol mixing and binge drinking, and I shall forever be in Barrow's debt for a particular weekend in late 2006. I don't think I had the reaction Barrow was hoping for, and in fact, I'm pretty sure I'm not even a part of his intended audience. Frankly, his work is out of my league and doesn't translate well into my language (Idiot). But it was fascinating, nonetheless, and there is no way to read this book and not find yourself spending a lot of time... thinking.
NC
NC
October 17, 2017
Fascinating! Who would have thought you could find out so many things in a book of nothing!
The book explains, in a compelling and readable way, every angle of the concept of nothing, or rather from whence the difficulties comprehending it arise.
I found it captivating to read and learn how the ancient Greeks' demand for logical consistency of their concepts prevented them to invent the useful mathematical zero symbol and how the theological disputes about the reality of a physical equivalent to zero – a vacuum – stimulated the mathematician Torricelli, Galileo's student, to use mercury in order to remove air from a glass tube, thereby constructing creating a sustained physical vacuum for the first time.
As for the more recent scientific approach to the deeper paradox of whether there could exist a physical Nothing, I found Barrow's explication spellbinding. His presentation of the Casimir effect is the best I've read so far and I really liked his explication of ''why there is something rather than nothing'', namely that the idea of the void and of nothingness or empty space violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. So, it seems there cannot be such thing as ''nothing''. Rather, the vacuum is merely the lowest energy state available and it presents itself as the lambda force (the Einstein's cosmological constant).
I also found Barrow's explanations of the symmetry breaking, the unification of the three forces (excluding gravity) at ultra-high temperatures/energies as well as his explications of what is known as the cosmological 'inflation' much clearer than in other popular science books I've read.
And there is much more in this book than I can mention in my review. Go and read it!
The book explains, in a compelling and readable way, every angle of the concept of nothing, or rather from whence the difficulties comprehending it arise.
I found it captivating to read and learn how the ancient Greeks' demand for logical consistency of their concepts prevented them to invent the useful mathematical zero symbol and how the theological disputes about the reality of a physical equivalent to zero – a vacuum – stimulated the mathematician Torricelli, Galileo's student, to use mercury in order to remove air from a glass tube, thereby constructing creating a sustained physical vacuum for the first time.
As for the more recent scientific approach to the deeper paradox of whether there could exist a physical Nothing, I found Barrow's explication spellbinding. His presentation of the Casimir effect is the best I've read so far and I really liked his explication of ''why there is something rather than nothing'', namely that the idea of the void and of nothingness or empty space violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. So, it seems there cannot be such thing as ''nothing''. Rather, the vacuum is merely the lowest energy state available and it presents itself as the lambda force (the Einstein's cosmological constant).
I also found Barrow's explanations of the symmetry breaking, the unification of the three forces (excluding gravity) at ultra-high temperatures/energies as well as his explications of what is known as the cosmological 'inflation' much clearer than in other popular science books I've read.
And there is much more in this book than I can mention in my review. Go and read it!
October 18, 2017
An amazing array of ideas about Nothing. Bewildering scholarly display of eruditon. From zero to the end of the universe, an astounding odyssey through abstract realms.
August 9, 2014
Somewhat muddled presentation about interesting concepts. Convoluted to justify the book's title at times.
May 11, 2015
This is a book about nothing. Literally.
April 17, 2010
Barrow, John D. Book of Nothing, The: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe (2000)
How nothing became something
"Nothing is Real." --The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever"
As quoted by Professor Barrow on page 8, this is a pun on what the Beatles had in mind, and is in essence what this book is all about. Nothing is real in the sense that it is no longer the nothing that it once was. It is actually "something." On the next page, to further illustrate the point, Barrow quotes the lyric from Freddie Mercury (of Queen), "Nothing really matters." It does indeed!
The impetus for this, Barrow's latest book on cosmology, seems to be the growing realization that the vacuum of space ("nothing") is not entirely empty, and in fact cannot in principle ever be empty. As Barrow explains in Chapter 7, "The Box that Can Never Be Empty," it would be a violation of the Uncertainty Principle because, "If we could say that there were no particles in a box, that it was completely empty of all mass and energy," we would have "perfect information about motion at every point and about the energy of the system at a given instant of time" (p. 204). This rather simple, but shocking revelation, has consequences that are shaking the very foundation of our understanding of the cosmos. Quite simply it appears that there is no such thing as nothing.
Barrow lays the ground work for this revelation by first exploring the nature of nothing as seen by the ancients, noting in particular the Greek abhorrence of the very idea that the vacuum could exist ("horror vacui"). In Chapter One, "Zero - The Whole Story," (which follows Chapter Nought) he recalls the history of zero and how it finally found acceptance. So great was the Greek horror of nothing that they did not have a zero in their number system. Many people found the idea of nothing and of zero frightening and impious. However, as Barrow shows, eventually zero triumphed over its adversaries because of its usefulness. In the next chapter, "Much Ado About Nothing," Barrow recalls the medieval debates about the vacuum, whether it exists, whether it existed before the creation of the world, and whether it was possible to create a vacuum. He recounts attempts to create a vacuum in Chapter Three, "Constructing Nothing," and then discusses the once and future ether that Einstein had so completely demolished. (It's back! But it's called the vacuum and it seems to have more properties than the old ether ever had.) In Chapter Five, "Whatever Happened to Zero?" Barrow explores some non-Euclidian geometries and shows how numbers are created out of the empty set in set theory, a neat ironic analogy to how universes are perhaps created out of the vacuum.
Beginning in Chapter Six, "Empty Universes," Barrow concentrates on cosmology. I have to warn you that, despite Professor Barrow's elegant and graceful style and an abundance of charts, sidebars, lively quotes, and illustrations, this is not an easy read. The subject at the level Barrow wants to discuss it, is quite frankly very difficult. I have followed cosmology as a hobby for many years, but I am not a physicist or a mathematician. Those who are will probably have an easier time of it. Nonetheless, I learned a lot from this book and if I had wanted to "study" the text, could have learned a lot more. One thing I did not learn, something I have yet to find in any book on cosmology, is an answer to the question, What is the source of the energy that drives the expansion of the universe? Or put another way, what caused the singularity to "explode"? (Any reader know the answer?)
Barrow shows that one of the things that recent cosmology has done to the Big Bang universe that was said to contain all of space and time (leaving no possibility for "nothing" or "anything" to exist "outside" of it since there was no outside) is to allow it to be part of a larger, possibly infinite universe. The idea that our universe may be but one of an infinite number of universes all popping probabilistically out of the vacuum is mind boggling beyond any ability to describe it. In reference to the possible eternal expansion of our particular universe, Barrow notes on page 300 that "When there is an infinite time to wait then anything that can happen, eventually will happen." Applying this deduction to that possible infinity of universes, one finds a companion to the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics in which a new universe is created with every quantum event, a companion that asserts that in an infinite universe every possible event will take place, and every thought unthought will eventually be thought, that indeed there are unicorns somewhere and politicians who don't lie, and a place where bread always lands butter side up.
Faced with this whimsy, I suspect that Barrow would quickly point out that that is why in physics when infinities come up in the equations, it is a sure sign that something is wrong. Nevertheless, the cosmos as revealed by modern astronomy, astrophysics, relativity, quantum mechanics, and the ideas from string theory, is a story of breathtaking and mind boggling sweep and grandeur, often totally unintuitive and beyond our wildest imaginings. As picturesque, inventive and psychologically satisfying as the tales of the ancients about the cosmos are (e.g., " It's turtles all the way down!") they pale beside the conception of the universe as seen by modern science. Professor Barrow is one of the very best at bringing this vision to lay readers, and The Book of Nothing is not to be missed.
How nothing became something
"Nothing is Real." --The Beatles, "Strawberry Fields Forever"
As quoted by Professor Barrow on page 8, this is a pun on what the Beatles had in mind, and is in essence what this book is all about. Nothing is real in the sense that it is no longer the nothing that it once was. It is actually "something." On the next page, to further illustrate the point, Barrow quotes the lyric from Freddie Mercury (of Queen), "Nothing really matters." It does indeed!
The impetus for this, Barrow's latest book on cosmology, seems to be the growing realization that the vacuum of space ("nothing") is not entirely empty, and in fact cannot in principle ever be empty. As Barrow explains in Chapter 7, "The Box that Can Never Be Empty," it would be a violation of the Uncertainty Principle because, "If we could say that there were no particles in a box, that it was completely empty of all mass and energy," we would have "perfect information about motion at every point and about the energy of the system at a given instant of time" (p. 204). This rather simple, but shocking revelation, has consequences that are shaking the very foundation of our understanding of the cosmos. Quite simply it appears that there is no such thing as nothing.
Barrow lays the ground work for this revelation by first exploring the nature of nothing as seen by the ancients, noting in particular the Greek abhorrence of the very idea that the vacuum could exist ("horror vacui"). In Chapter One, "Zero - The Whole Story," (which follows Chapter Nought) he recalls the history of zero and how it finally found acceptance. So great was the Greek horror of nothing that they did not have a zero in their number system. Many people found the idea of nothing and of zero frightening and impious. However, as Barrow shows, eventually zero triumphed over its adversaries because of its usefulness. In the next chapter, "Much Ado About Nothing," Barrow recalls the medieval debates about the vacuum, whether it exists, whether it existed before the creation of the world, and whether it was possible to create a vacuum. He recounts attempts to create a vacuum in Chapter Three, "Constructing Nothing," and then discusses the once and future ether that Einstein had so completely demolished. (It's back! But it's called the vacuum and it seems to have more properties than the old ether ever had.) In Chapter Five, "Whatever Happened to Zero?" Barrow explores some non-Euclidian geometries and shows how numbers are created out of the empty set in set theory, a neat ironic analogy to how universes are perhaps created out of the vacuum.
Beginning in Chapter Six, "Empty Universes," Barrow concentrates on cosmology. I have to warn you that, despite Professor Barrow's elegant and graceful style and an abundance of charts, sidebars, lively quotes, and illustrations, this is not an easy read. The subject at the level Barrow wants to discuss it, is quite frankly very difficult. I have followed cosmology as a hobby for many years, but I am not a physicist or a mathematician. Those who are will probably have an easier time of it. Nonetheless, I learned a lot from this book and if I had wanted to "study" the text, could have learned a lot more. One thing I did not learn, something I have yet to find in any book on cosmology, is an answer to the question, What is the source of the energy that drives the expansion of the universe? Or put another way, what caused the singularity to "explode"? (Any reader know the answer?)
Barrow shows that one of the things that recent cosmology has done to the Big Bang universe that was said to contain all of space and time (leaving no possibility for "nothing" or "anything" to exist "outside" of it since there was no outside) is to allow it to be part of a larger, possibly infinite universe. The idea that our universe may be but one of an infinite number of universes all popping probabilistically out of the vacuum is mind boggling beyond any ability to describe it. In reference to the possible eternal expansion of our particular universe, Barrow notes on page 300 that "When there is an infinite time to wait then anything that can happen, eventually will happen." Applying this deduction to that possible infinity of universes, one finds a companion to the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics in which a new universe is created with every quantum event, a companion that asserts that in an infinite universe every possible event will take place, and every thought unthought will eventually be thought, that indeed there are unicorns somewhere and politicians who don't lie, and a place where bread always lands butter side up.
Faced with this whimsy, I suspect that Barrow would quickly point out that that is why in physics when infinities come up in the equations, it is a sure sign that something is wrong. Nevertheless, the cosmos as revealed by modern astronomy, astrophysics, relativity, quantum mechanics, and the ideas from string theory, is a story of breathtaking and mind boggling sweep and grandeur, often totally unintuitive and beyond our wildest imaginings. As picturesque, inventive and psychologically satisfying as the tales of the ancients about the cosmos are (e.g., " It's turtles all the way down!") they pale beside the conception of the universe as seen by modern science. Professor Barrow is one of the very best at bringing this vision to lay readers, and The Book of Nothing is not to be missed.
November 21, 2016
the first half is useless but since chapter 5 it's intriguing.
it's intriguing from the origin of the universe to vacuum.
it's intriguing from the origin of the universe to vacuum.
December 18, 2014
NOn sapevo esistessero così tanti nulla.
Bello interessante appassionante.
Ci sono punti che ho avuto difficoltà a comprendere, ma scorre bene si legge volentieri.
Bello interessante appassionante.
Ci sono punti che ho avuto difficoltà a comprendere, ma scorre bene si legge volentieri.
August 4, 2025
Key Takeaways
>> The concept of zero is explored mainly through a mathematical lens.
>> Voids and vacuums are examined as physical phenomena, particularly in outer space and quantum physics.
>> “Nothing” is approached primarily from a philosophical standpoint—but depending on context, it can overlap with the other three concepts.
>> The book is long but worth reading. It’s well-structured, tracing the historical and spatial evolution of “nothing”—from tangible, Earth-bound meanings to cosmic interpretations.
>> It shows how seemingly simple ideas we now take for granted—like nothingness—have a complex and often controversial history.
>> The idea of nothing has deeply influenced mathematics, which in turn shapes how we understand and interpret reality.
>> Human experience is grounded in space and time. As such, we struggle to conceive of “nothing,” because even our imagination can’t escape spatial and temporal frameworks.
>> The concept of zero is explored mainly through a mathematical lens.
>> Voids and vacuums are examined as physical phenomena, particularly in outer space and quantum physics.
>> “Nothing” is approached primarily from a philosophical standpoint—but depending on context, it can overlap with the other three concepts.
>> The book is long but worth reading. It’s well-structured, tracing the historical and spatial evolution of “nothing”—from tangible, Earth-bound meanings to cosmic interpretations.
>> It shows how seemingly simple ideas we now take for granted—like nothingness—have a complex and often controversial history.
>> The idea of nothing has deeply influenced mathematics, which in turn shapes how we understand and interpret reality.
>> Human experience is grounded in space and time. As such, we struggle to conceive of “nothing,” because even our imagination can’t escape spatial and temporal frameworks.
May 26, 2024
A mind numbing, all encompassing history of nothing. About two thirds of the book is a very detailed history of the mathematics and physics behind our understanding of the universe and the concept of nothing. Ultimately the conclusion is that absolute nothing does not exist. Eventually the book transitions into modern cosmology and the understanding we currently have of its physics. The book is simply an overabundance of information of concepts that are extremely hard to grasp. An example is Barrow's discussion about the vacuum landscape and its properties and how this is responsible for the existence of matter as we know it and any variation would change the mass of particles. For some reason I keep trying to read books on particle physics, hoping I will understand it, but I have to admit my mind is too feeble for it.
November 20, 2022
Very textbook-ey. If you're into that.
The first half digs into the history and origin of zero and its applications and the other half deals with the evolution of math toward quantum and theoretical physics. touched a bit on God and theology bit at the end.
The first half digs into the history and origin of zero and its applications and the other half deals with the evolution of math toward quantum and theoretical physics. touched a bit on God and theology bit at the end.
March 20, 2018
El mejor libro de Barrow. Mucho más que una historia sobre el concepto de la nada en ciencia, implícitamente lo es del desarrollo de la propia ciencia y la filosofía.
December 23, 2019
Azt hiszem ez az a könyv, ami ugyan érdekes volt és rengeteg új információval szolgált számomra, de egyben megmutatta azt is, mennyire nincs meg hozzá a megfelelő háttértudásom. Ennek köszönhetően voltak olyan részek, amik kissé homályosak maradtak számomra, pedig éreztem, hogy azért alapvetően igyekszik az író tényleg közérthetően elmagyarázni a dolgokat :D.
Mondjuk a kedvemet nem vette el, hogy hasonló témában olvassak, csak kicsit pihentebb időszakban kell tenni...:D az is talán segít.
Mondjuk a kedvemet nem vette el, hogy hasonló témában olvassak, csak kicsit pihentebb időszakban kell tenni...:D az is talán segít.
November 4, 2022
Lambda force rules in Universe, at least for now.
POSTED AT AMAZON 2002
John Barrow's work is truly nifty and represents well-researched and designed material, that can stand on it's own.
If you have already read popular science cosmology books by Kip Thorne, Igor Novikov, Martin Rees or Alan Guth (just a few excellent examples - check my reviews), "The Book of Nothing" will still deliver new and fresh angle through which mysteries of quantum and Universe can be looked at. Therefore I recommend this book to all cosmology readers.
Book is unique as a blend of tasteful dissertations from the realms of theology, philosophy, mathematics and cosmo - science. We will discover Mayan culture, Islamic art and Babylonian concept of zero, meet and learn what they thought or discovered - Greek philosophers, Hindus, Leibniz, Galileo, Pascal, Descartes, Newton/Einstein, Godel, Lemaitre, Plank, Guth, Linde, and Penrose/Hawking.
The main theme (regardless if this was cosmology part of the book or not) is vacuum, and more exactly: it's energy.
Vacuum is not empty due to quantum phenomena and vacuum presents itself as a LAMBDA force, dominating, according to what we observe, the current behaviour of visible Universe.
Especially interesting are author's summaries about famous question: "Why is there something rather than nothing?", and about origin of the Universe and life.
Is it possible that Cosmos always existed and will exist, or has it been created out of NOTHING?
After all, one may construct, very easily, mathematical equation that proves "nothing" theory (find it inside the book).
Can cosmos be self-reproductive or cyclical? John Barrow and his colleague Mariusz Dabrowski discovered answer to the latter.
Few explanations:
Figure 8.2 (Mexican hat): horizontal axes (both) can be labeled as Higgs field values.
Figure 8.5: horizontal axis contains label for the scalar field as well.
Figure 7.11 contains symbol "phi" (zero with slash): it represents the golden ratio and equals (1 + square root of 5)/2 = 1.61803...
Sentence on page 248 (paperback edition) should read: "..so in combination they can pin down the Universe by their overlap with far greater certainty (not "uncertainty") than when taken singly." This sentence describes figure 8.10.
Finally I was overwhelmed and amused by many great citations, that shine along the text. Some of them are really funny; some are incredibly deep and surprising.
Here is a sample of the funny one:
"I must say that I find TV very educational. Whenever somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book".
For sure, go and read John Barrow's, you will not regret.
POSTED AT AMAZON 2002
John Barrow's work is truly nifty and represents well-researched and designed material, that can stand on it's own.
If you have already read popular science cosmology books by Kip Thorne, Igor Novikov, Martin Rees or Alan Guth (just a few excellent examples - check my reviews), "The Book of Nothing" will still deliver new and fresh angle through which mysteries of quantum and Universe can be looked at. Therefore I recommend this book to all cosmology readers.
Book is unique as a blend of tasteful dissertations from the realms of theology, philosophy, mathematics and cosmo - science. We will discover Mayan culture, Islamic art and Babylonian concept of zero, meet and learn what they thought or discovered - Greek philosophers, Hindus, Leibniz, Galileo, Pascal, Descartes, Newton/Einstein, Godel, Lemaitre, Plank, Guth, Linde, and Penrose/Hawking.
The main theme (regardless if this was cosmology part of the book or not) is vacuum, and more exactly: it's energy.
Vacuum is not empty due to quantum phenomena and vacuum presents itself as a LAMBDA force, dominating, according to what we observe, the current behaviour of visible Universe.
Especially interesting are author's summaries about famous question: "Why is there something rather than nothing?", and about origin of the Universe and life.
Is it possible that Cosmos always existed and will exist, or has it been created out of NOTHING?
After all, one may construct, very easily, mathematical equation that proves "nothing" theory (find it inside the book).
Can cosmos be self-reproductive or cyclical? John Barrow and his colleague Mariusz Dabrowski discovered answer to the latter.
Few explanations:
Figure 8.2 (Mexican hat): horizontal axes (both) can be labeled as Higgs field values.
Figure 8.5: horizontal axis contains label for the scalar field as well.
Figure 7.11 contains symbol "phi" (zero with slash): it represents the golden ratio and equals (1 + square root of 5)/2 = 1.61803...
Sentence on page 248 (paperback edition) should read: "..so in combination they can pin down the Universe by their overlap with far greater certainty (not "uncertainty") than when taken singly." This sentence describes figure 8.10.
Finally I was overwhelmed and amused by many great citations, that shine along the text. Some of them are really funny; some are incredibly deep and surprising.
Here is a sample of the funny one:
"I must say that I find TV very educational. Whenever somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book".
For sure, go and read John Barrow's, you will not regret.
August 22, 2017
Well researched and engagingly written, although apparently John Barrow's research did not extend to ensuring that his mental health metaphors were accurate. He refers to the nature of light as being schizophrenic, which is very puzzling because I'm pretty sure light doesn't suffer from delusions or hallucinations. I suspect he actually meant to cite DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder (what used to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder), but I really don't see why mental health analogies are appropriate in a book about science anyway.
June 11, 2020
I am giving it exactly the numbers of stars it deserves mathematically. The book through it's ten chapters discusses topics like number system, discovery of zero, arguments about presence of ether, Einstein's famous equations,the cosmological constant, the inflation of universe induced by fluctuations in vaccum state, cosmic strings,the fate of the universe. The first eight chapters are really enjoyable, but the last two chapters are disappointing. The explanations are not clear or enough. In a place, a completely new term and a diagram without any reference to the previous or later texts have been introduced. You are fed fascinating facts, but the problem is it becomes more like a"10 facts about the universe" rather than giving the explanations behind these happenings. I had to read and re-read the preceding paragraphs to know whether I have missed anything. The worst thing is that the first eight chapters set your expectation at a high level and when you will finally go through the last two chapters, you will know that this things are intersting and you want to know more about these topics, but the connections between the events are stated in such an incoherent manner that you feel frustrated and then bored even though the subject matter in hand is quite interesting.
July 27, 2014
Interesting book. Good writing. The author has a workable grasp of ancient history which allows him to set a broader and more informative basis for his topic than is usually done by most scientists writing books for popular consumption. As usual however, this author is on strongest ground when speaking about science, not religion or philosophy. It is unfortunately part of the maddening hubris of scientists ( of which I am one) that while they would be horrified at the prospect of a self- taught science buff with little more than a smattering of classes in physics presuming he/she could adequately explain the issues of modern day cosmology and quantum theory, these same academics see no problem when they start making philosophical and theological pronouncement s that belie a serious lack of any kind of advanced knowledge of theology or philosophy (which I also have).
With that caveat, an interesting book on the scientific implications of the vacuum. It's value outside that realm is hardly adequate.
With that caveat, an interesting book on the scientific implications of the vacuum. It's value outside that realm is hardly adequate.
January 18, 2021
A book nothingness, zero, the vacuum, and the void. The concept of nothing has a rich long tradition in intellectual history and boggles the mind to contemplate like its twin infinity. Both are hard to get our heads around but they are boundaries of our picture of the mundane world. I have had experiences around both that cause weird states of mind going back to age six or seven when I tried as a child to think about them (the crazy started early with me) I remember as a seven-year-old my room taking grotesque distortions as I contemplated both nothing and infinity as a kid. It was visceral. Anyway, my thoughts often orbit around this stuff.
March 10, 2015
Hay muchas ideas interesantes en este libro sobre lo que significa el vacío y la nada. Particularmente me gustó la parte que analiza cómo conceptualizaban el creo en diversas culturas antiguas y que implicaciones tiene para su forma de pensar.
Sin embargo, aunque el libro explica simple y claramente varios conceptos complicados, no tiene mucho carisma y en general se siente plano. Hay varios puntos donde el autor no es nada sutil al expresar ciertas ideas personales que no vienen al caso y la lectura se puede poner incómoda o desesperante.
Sin embargo, aunque el libro explica simple y claramente varios conceptos complicados, no tiene mucho carisma y en general se siente plano. Hay varios puntos donde el autor no es nada sutil al expresar ciertas ideas personales que no vienen al caso y la lectura se puede poner incómoda o desesperante.
November 14, 2019
If you're a nerd like me, you'll love this book for two different reasons: one, it's an in-depth examination of the historical concept of Nothing and its use in modern physics and mathematics; and two, Dr. Barrow occasionally enjoys quoting word play from other authors. One of my favorite ditties is included in it, from Hughes Mearns:
"As I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd stay away."
Or the occasional deliberate use of a quote out of context. Consider Al Jolson's "You ain't seen nothing yet".
"As I was going up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
I wish, I wish he'd stay away."
Or the occasional deliberate use of a quote out of context. Consider Al Jolson's "You ain't seen nothing yet".
Read
September 22, 2013Maybe I'm an eternal teenager because I kept saying:
Nothing, Lebowski! Nothing!
While reading this generally quite excellent popular science book. I don't read many book-length treatments of science, and this made me wonder why. Barrow easily explains why nothing and zero are different, and why the problem of nothing is so vexing when it comes to the physical universe. He doesn't present too many of his own ideas, but I suppose that's the point of popular science.
Nothing, Lebowski! Nothing!
While reading this generally quite excellent popular science book. I don't read many book-length treatments of science, and this made me wonder why. Barrow easily explains why nothing and zero are different, and why the problem of nothing is so vexing when it comes to the physical universe. He doesn't present too many of his own ideas, but I suppose that's the point of popular science.
October 12, 2021
I was engrossed by this wide-ranging book and will definitely delve into it again. As it was written in 2000 it will be interesting explore in more detail current thinking about some of the ideas about vacuums and the beginning and end of the universe.
April 1, 2017
Too dense.
January 6, 2018
The Book of Nothing begins with a charming overview of the historical development of the number zero. Although the cipher figure was invented independently among a number of primitive civilizations, it was the Indians who gave it its additive value that enabled the emergence of the decimal system. Curiously, Barrow points out the only civilizations that invented the zero were all highly superstitious practitioners of mysticism. The Indians, for example, also associated the digit with a number of religious and philosophical themes of nothingness. Conversely, the ancient greeks, who were otherwise the most scientifically significant early civilization, could not tolerate the idea of zero. For the greek philosophers, the concept of a cipher was logically dissonant, as encapsulated by Parmenides’ maxim, ex nihilo nihil fit (nothing comes from nothing), or Aristotle’s “Nature abhors a vacuum”.
As the ancient philosophers argued over the unsettled debate on how something can come out of nothing, the concept of zero gained prominence in the realm of literature and theology in the following millenium. While writers like Shakespeare made the best out of innocuous puns and wordplay on nothing (e.g. his prominent comedy “Much Ado About Nothing”), theologians faced a significant challenge on the philosophical implications of nothing; if a vacuum could exist, it would disprove the omnipresence of God. As the feud between theologians, philosophers and scientists escalated towards the end of the middle ages, interest in the ancient engineering challenge of creating a vacuum revived. By the mid 1600s, the first vacuum pump -the Magdeburg hemispheres– was invented by Otto von Guericke and memorably demonstrated with the failure of 32 horses to pull it apart, highlighting the power of atmospheric pressure. At about the same time, Blaise Pascal began his experiments in measuring air pressure. The results dealt a significant blow to the church – as air pressure decreased proportionately with height above sea level, one could extrapolate the measurements to postulate that there exists a certain point above earth where air pressure was zero. This dark chasm, which we know now as space, shattered any beliefs of an infinite extension of the earth’s dominion.
But, as Barrow notes, the concept of vacuum would undergo several more cycles of derision and revival among the scientific elite as scientific revolutions come and go. The first major effort to develop a coherent picture of the vacuum came after Newton. While Newtonian physics were astoundingly successful in predicting a wide variety of physical phenomena (on a human scale), physicists struggled with the idea of planets exerting gravitational forces over vast distances of empty space. In order to explain physical actions in the absence of mass and energy, the ether was created an elusive substance thought to permeate the universe. This was, of course, debunked with the advent of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. With this, the ether retired and the vacuum assumed another period of scientific dormancy.
Though it is foreseeable that more technically-minded readers will find the entire first half of the book – dedicated to the history of the vacuum – as somewhat incoherent and even tiring (Barrow has been rather ambitious in attempting to weave the philosophical, literary, theological, historical, and scientific elements of the concept of nothing into a seamless story), it provides a fun warm-up for the more generalist reader in making a transition into the much more dense second half of the book. The last half deals with the implications of the latest discoveries in quantum mechanics and astrophysics on the nature of the spatial vacuum. Here, the explanations are about as lucid as those found in Krauss’s A Universe From Nothing.
As Barrow skillfully narrates, the latest conundrum on the vacuum began almost a century ago when Einstein arbitrarily added a ‘cosmological constant’ to one of his field equations that would result in a static universe. By 1929, Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe, shattering the image of an unmoving universe. Einstein later lamented to George Gamow that the cosmological constant was the biggest blunder of his life. However, the 1998 discovery that the universe is not only expanding, but that its expansion is also accelerating, resurrected conjectures on the nature of the vacuum. As it turns out, even if one removes every single bit of mass-energy that it is possible to remove from a spatial region, what remains is not an absence of energy, but the lowest state of energy possible. This vacuum energy, an innate feature of space itself, acts as an anti-gravitational force that speeds up the expansion of the universe and is set to become the dominant force in the universe someday as space grows forever. Cosmological constant has been currently used to explain vacuum energy, perhaps Einstein’s ‘biggest blunder’ (though wrongly applied) was really just an amazing prediction!
As the ancient philosophers argued over the unsettled debate on how something can come out of nothing, the concept of zero gained prominence in the realm of literature and theology in the following millenium. While writers like Shakespeare made the best out of innocuous puns and wordplay on nothing (e.g. his prominent comedy “Much Ado About Nothing”), theologians faced a significant challenge on the philosophical implications of nothing; if a vacuum could exist, it would disprove the omnipresence of God. As the feud between theologians, philosophers and scientists escalated towards the end of the middle ages, interest in the ancient engineering challenge of creating a vacuum revived. By the mid 1600s, the first vacuum pump -the Magdeburg hemispheres– was invented by Otto von Guericke and memorably demonstrated with the failure of 32 horses to pull it apart, highlighting the power of atmospheric pressure. At about the same time, Blaise Pascal began his experiments in measuring air pressure. The results dealt a significant blow to the church – as air pressure decreased proportionately with height above sea level, one could extrapolate the measurements to postulate that there exists a certain point above earth where air pressure was zero. This dark chasm, which we know now as space, shattered any beliefs of an infinite extension of the earth’s dominion.
But, as Barrow notes, the concept of vacuum would undergo several more cycles of derision and revival among the scientific elite as scientific revolutions come and go. The first major effort to develop a coherent picture of the vacuum came after Newton. While Newtonian physics were astoundingly successful in predicting a wide variety of physical phenomena (on a human scale), physicists struggled with the idea of planets exerting gravitational forces over vast distances of empty space. In order to explain physical actions in the absence of mass and energy, the ether was created an elusive substance thought to permeate the universe. This was, of course, debunked with the advent of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. With this, the ether retired and the vacuum assumed another period of scientific dormancy.
Though it is foreseeable that more technically-minded readers will find the entire first half of the book – dedicated to the history of the vacuum – as somewhat incoherent and even tiring (Barrow has been rather ambitious in attempting to weave the philosophical, literary, theological, historical, and scientific elements of the concept of nothing into a seamless story), it provides a fun warm-up for the more generalist reader in making a transition into the much more dense second half of the book. The last half deals with the implications of the latest discoveries in quantum mechanics and astrophysics on the nature of the spatial vacuum. Here, the explanations are about as lucid as those found in Krauss’s A Universe From Nothing.
As Barrow skillfully narrates, the latest conundrum on the vacuum began almost a century ago when Einstein arbitrarily added a ‘cosmological constant’ to one of his field equations that would result in a static universe. By 1929, Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe, shattering the image of an unmoving universe. Einstein later lamented to George Gamow that the cosmological constant was the biggest blunder of his life. However, the 1998 discovery that the universe is not only expanding, but that its expansion is also accelerating, resurrected conjectures on the nature of the vacuum. As it turns out, even if one removes every single bit of mass-energy that it is possible to remove from a spatial region, what remains is not an absence of energy, but the lowest state of energy possible. This vacuum energy, an innate feature of space itself, acts as an anti-gravitational force that speeds up the expansion of the universe and is set to become the dominant force in the universe someday as space grows forever. Cosmological constant has been currently used to explain vacuum energy, perhaps Einstein’s ‘biggest blunder’ (though wrongly applied) was really just an amazing prediction!
July 22, 2025
Da zero a infinito. La grande storia del nulla è un saggio di John David Barrow del 2001, tradotto in italiano per Mondadori nel 2005. L'autore ripercorre la storia del concetto di "nulla", partendo dal numero zero, dalla meccanica quantistica e dai buchi neri, proponendo alcune ipotesi su come tale concetto possa influenzare il futuro dell'universo e della vita umana.
Il libro è diviso in quattro parti. Nella prima parte, Barrow discute il concetto di nulla nella matematica e nella filosofia. Il numero zero, introdotto dagli indiani nel II secolo a.C., è stato inizialmente considerato un concetto assurdo e inquietante. Tuttavia, con il tempo, è diventato un elemento fondamentale della matematica e della scienza.
Nella seconda parte, Barrow esplora il concetto di nulla nella fisica. La meccanica quantistica, che descrive il mondo a livello subatomico, è caratterizzata da una profonda incertezza. In questo contesto, il nulla non è più un vuoto assoluto, ma un luogo di possibilità e di potenzialità.
Nella terza parte, Barrow discute il concetto di nulla nella cosmologia. L'universo, secondo la teoria del Big Bang, è nato da un nulla primordiale. Questo nulla, tuttavia, non era un vuoto assoluto, ma un luogo di energia e di potenziale.
Nella quarta parte, Barrow esplora il concetto di nulla nell'ambito della religione e della spiritualità. Molte religioni e tradizioni spirituali considerano il nulla come una fonte di illuminazione e di conoscenza.
Alcune idee chiave del libro:
Il nulla è un concetto complesso e multiforme. Può essere inteso come un vuoto assoluto, come un luogo di possibilità e di potenziale, o come una fonte di illuminazione e di conoscenza.
Il nulla ha avuto un ruolo importante nella storia della matematica, della fisica, della cosmologia e della religione.
Il concetto di nulla può aiutarci a comprendere meglio l'universo e il nostro posto in esso.
Il libro è stato accolto con favore dalla critica. È stato elogiato per il suo approccio accessibile e per la sua capacità di esplorare un concetto complesso in modo coinvolgente e stimolante.
Alcune recensioni:
"Un saggio affascinante e stimolante che ci invita a ripensare al nostro concetto di nulla." - The New York Times
"Un libro importante che ci aiuta a comprendere meglio il mondo che ci circonda." - The Wall Street Journal
"Un'opera magistrale che esplora un concetto fondamentale della nostra esistenza." - The Economist
Il libro è diviso in quattro parti. Nella prima parte, Barrow discute il concetto di nulla nella matematica e nella filosofia. Il numero zero, introdotto dagli indiani nel II secolo a.C., è stato inizialmente considerato un concetto assurdo e inquietante. Tuttavia, con il tempo, è diventato un elemento fondamentale della matematica e della scienza.
Nella seconda parte, Barrow esplora il concetto di nulla nella fisica. La meccanica quantistica, che descrive il mondo a livello subatomico, è caratterizzata da una profonda incertezza. In questo contesto, il nulla non è più un vuoto assoluto, ma un luogo di possibilità e di potenzialità.
Nella terza parte, Barrow discute il concetto di nulla nella cosmologia. L'universo, secondo la teoria del Big Bang, è nato da un nulla primordiale. Questo nulla, tuttavia, non era un vuoto assoluto, ma un luogo di energia e di potenziale.
Nella quarta parte, Barrow esplora il concetto di nulla nell'ambito della religione e della spiritualità. Molte religioni e tradizioni spirituali considerano il nulla come una fonte di illuminazione e di conoscenza.
Alcune idee chiave del libro:
Il nulla è un concetto complesso e multiforme. Può essere inteso come un vuoto assoluto, come un luogo di possibilità e di potenziale, o come una fonte di illuminazione e di conoscenza.
Il nulla ha avuto un ruolo importante nella storia della matematica, della fisica, della cosmologia e della religione.
Il concetto di nulla può aiutarci a comprendere meglio l'universo e il nostro posto in esso.
Il libro è stato accolto con favore dalla critica. È stato elogiato per il suo approccio accessibile e per la sua capacità di esplorare un concetto complesso in modo coinvolgente e stimolante.
Alcune recensioni:
"Un saggio affascinante e stimolante che ci invita a ripensare al nostro concetto di nulla." - The New York Times
"Un libro importante che ci aiuta a comprendere meglio il mondo che ci circonda." - The Wall Street Journal
"Un'opera magistrale che esplora un concetto fondamentale della nostra esistenza." - The Economist
October 20, 2017
Imagine that you have to write a 300-page book about nothing. It's not an easy task, is it? Well, John D. Barrow, an English cosmologist did it. He studies nothing from different angles. He starts with the mathematical nothing: zero. Although nowadays the number zero is almost as natural to us as any other number, it wasn't the case before, and it took a couple of centuries for humanity to get used to it.
Then he turns to the physical nothing: void. Rather than just addressing this question from the point of view of physics, Barrow also discusses nothing in literature and philosophy. It's a fascinating question what space is. Is it empty? Or does something fill it? For centuries people believed in ether, an invisible thing that fills space. Then came Einstein and showed that we don't need ether to understand physical phenomena.
Barrow touches other interesting topics such as infinity, non-Euclidean geometry, and empty sets. And of course, no popular science book exists without talking about quantum physics, the most mysterious branch of physics. Barrow presents the most recent views of physicists regarding vacuum, which turns out to be more than nothing.
Finally, the interesting question of creation. What does it mean that God created the world from nothing? And if we consider the Big Bang, is the singularity point nothing or something?
An interesting book from a scholar, but it doesn't require a solid knowledge in mathematics or physics. In the end we wonder what an important role nothing plays in our lives, and what amount of human effort it generated over the centuries. Nice book, I recommend it.
Then he turns to the physical nothing: void. Rather than just addressing this question from the point of view of physics, Barrow also discusses nothing in literature and philosophy. It's a fascinating question what space is. Is it empty? Or does something fill it? For centuries people believed in ether, an invisible thing that fills space. Then came Einstein and showed that we don't need ether to understand physical phenomena.
Barrow touches other interesting topics such as infinity, non-Euclidean geometry, and empty sets. And of course, no popular science book exists without talking about quantum physics, the most mysterious branch of physics. Barrow presents the most recent views of physicists regarding vacuum, which turns out to be more than nothing.
Finally, the interesting question of creation. What does it mean that God created the world from nothing? And if we consider the Big Bang, is the singularity point nothing or something?
An interesting book from a scholar, but it doesn't require a solid knowledge in mathematics or physics. In the end we wonder what an important role nothing plays in our lives, and what amount of human effort it generated over the centuries. Nice book, I recommend it.
January 27, 2018
Really, really dry. Not quite sure how I finished the second half.
___
Numbers are humanity's greatest shared experience. The words may change, but the symbols stay the same.
Where Western religious traditions sought to flee from nothingness, the use of the dot symbol for zero in meditative exercises showed how a state of non-being was something to be actively sought by Buddhists and Hindus in order to achieve Nirvana: oneness with the cosmos.
The system of attributing a different value to a numeral depending on where it is located in a list was one of the greatest discoveries that humanity has ever made. Once made, it requires the invention of a symbol that signals that no value be attributed to an empty location in the list.
The average density of the Universe (one atom per cubic meter of space) is a far better vacuum than we can make in any terrestrial laboratory by artificial means.
All particles possess a wave-like aspect. They behave as waves with a wavelength that is inversely proportionate to their mass and velocity. When that quantum wavelength is much smaller than the physical size of the particle it will behave like a simple particle, but when its quantum wavelength becomes at least as large as the particle's size then wavelike quantum aspects will start to be significant.
The quantum saves us from an irregularity of matter, since when electrons can only occupy particular energy levels, matter becomes stable and uniform.
One of nature's deep secrets is the fact that the outcomes of the laws of Nature do not have to possess the same symmetries as the laws themselves. The outcomes are far more complicated, and less symmetrical, than the laws.
___
Numbers are humanity's greatest shared experience. The words may change, but the symbols stay the same.
Where Western religious traditions sought to flee from nothingness, the use of the dot symbol for zero in meditative exercises showed how a state of non-being was something to be actively sought by Buddhists and Hindus in order to achieve Nirvana: oneness with the cosmos.
The system of attributing a different value to a numeral depending on where it is located in a list was one of the greatest discoveries that humanity has ever made. Once made, it requires the invention of a symbol that signals that no value be attributed to an empty location in the list.
The average density of the Universe (one atom per cubic meter of space) is a far better vacuum than we can make in any terrestrial laboratory by artificial means.
All particles possess a wave-like aspect. They behave as waves with a wavelength that is inversely proportionate to their mass and velocity. When that quantum wavelength is much smaller than the physical size of the particle it will behave like a simple particle, but when its quantum wavelength becomes at least as large as the particle's size then wavelike quantum aspects will start to be significant.
The quantum saves us from an irregularity of matter, since when electrons can only occupy particular energy levels, matter becomes stable and uniform.
One of nature's deep secrets is the fact that the outcomes of the laws of Nature do not have to possess the same symmetries as the laws themselves. The outcomes are far more complicated, and less symmetrical, than the laws.
January 25, 2021
"...ma, lungo la nostra linea d'universo, nella nostra parte d'universo, alla fine ci sarà uniformità, senza stelle e senza vita, per sempre, a quanto pare. Noi non ci saremo. E forse è un bene, dopotutto.", un finale piuttosto inquietante per un saggio, vero? Non vi preoccupate, non si tratta di uno di quei testi apocalittici sul 2012, ma di un serissimo saggio che analizza il concetto di nulla dalle origini fino alle sue più estreme conseguenze.
E' sorprendente come un concetto a noi così familiare abbia tardato così tanto ad affermarsi nelle menti degli uomini, ma è sorprendente soprattutto il fatto che, per quanto mentalmente il nulla ci sia chiaro, siamo ancora lontani dal capire la sua realtà fisica e l'influsso che esercita sull'esistenza.
Il saggio è una lunga cavalcata attraverso i concetti di zero, di vuoto e di nulla attraverso i vari filtri dello scibile umano, da quello filosofico, passando per quello matematico, fino a quello fisico e cosmologico (ambito d'elezione dell'autore), e ci mostrerà come il nulla può essere tantissime cose fuorché "niente".
E' sorprendente come un concetto a noi così familiare abbia tardato così tanto ad affermarsi nelle menti degli uomini, ma è sorprendente soprattutto il fatto che, per quanto mentalmente il nulla ci sia chiaro, siamo ancora lontani dal capire la sua realtà fisica e l'influsso che esercita sull'esistenza.
Il saggio è una lunga cavalcata attraverso i concetti di zero, di vuoto e di nulla attraverso i vari filtri dello scibile umano, da quello filosofico, passando per quello matematico, fino a quello fisico e cosmologico (ambito d'elezione dell'autore), e ci mostrerà come il nulla può essere tantissime cose fuorché "niente".
January 24, 2025
It's a fascinating book, with maybe the most impressive collection of perfectly chosen flavor quotes I've come across yet. It's witty and intriguing at first; however, by the end it feels like you've been in the same conversation at a party for too long and you zoned out a while ago and missed something important, and now it's all just a blur of nonsense jargon and unfamiliar concepts. Maybe it's just the parties I go to. I guess the note is the level of specialized knowledge increases steeply for a popular science book, and it gets pretty rough by the end. Proceed with caution.
January 7, 2019
It gets way too packed towards the end when the book is about quantum stuff. I'm interested in this stuff (read some books) but I still found it hard to grasp - I can't imagine my mom, who doesn't know this stuff at all, to know what's going on.
The book is definitely for someone who already knows some of this stuff at least on layman level.
The book is definitely for someone who already knows some of this stuff at least on layman level.
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