The Importance of Being Nothingness

Craig Hogan / book reviews

Scientists banter endlessly these days about The Mysterious Vacuum. Like aliens in a crackpot conspiracy theory, the vacuum seems to be connected to everything: dark energy, dark matter, the anthropic principle, parallel universes (or multiverses), the theory of everything, black holes, extra dimensions, gravitational waves, you name it. Everything is connected to Nothing is connected to Everything. The surreal wordplay of confusing jargon makes you wonder: Is there any There there?

Two recent books delve into Nothing from very different perspectives. In The Hole in the Universe, K. C. Cole, from the behind-the-scenes perspective of a science journalist, heads for the banter—the endlessly creative attempts of scientists to explain things to each other and to others in colorful and trenchant metaphors. In The Book of Nothing, J. D. Barrow explores, with meticulous scholarly attention to detail, thousands of years of philosophy, mathematics, physics and theology organized around the concept of Nothingness....(click to link)