The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe

393 Pages·2002·4.24 MB·English

by  John D. Barrow

Acclaim for John D. Barrow’s
The Book of Nothing
“Barrow is possessed of a polymathic mind that swoops and soars
as it plays in the (cid:30)elds of nothingness.… [He] pours this vintage
wine out of a Klein bottle of imagination and whimsy, which
makes the reader’s effort worthwhile.”
—The Washington Post
“Even when the science gets really di(cid:45)cult, Barrow explains it
with great clarity, a lovely lightness of touch and enormous
erudition.… He has written an eligible bachelor of a book—witty,
suave, rich and immensely learned.”
—The Spectator
“Barrow… writes with liveliness and in a clear-headed,
imaginative way.… He is, as clearly proven by his clever and
adept references to mathematicians, experimenters, writers, poets,
and dreamers throughout the ages of the study of ‘nothingness,’ a
master of his art.”
—The Decatur Daily
“Barrow … is very much at home with his topic, from his splendid
title onward.… Readers of popular science are well served by
Barrow’s apparently effortless range of reference.”
—The Guardian
“Barrow explores, with meticulous scholarly attention to detail,
thousands of years of philosophy, mathematics, physics and
theology organized around the concept of Nothingness.”
—American Scientist
“A clear, well-organized narrative.… Nothing informs in(cid:30)nite
aspects of life and the world at large, and Barrow does an
excellent job of bringing its effects to light.”
—Publishers Weekly
“There’s no hotter topic in science than nothing.… And there’s no
better writer to introduce it than Professor Barrow.”
—Focus

J O H N D. B A R R O W
The Book of Nothing
John D. Barrow is research professor of mathematical sciences in
the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at
Cambridge University. His previous books include Theories of
Everything, The Artful Universe, Impossibility, Between Inner Space
and Outer Space, The Universe That Discovered Itself, and The
Origin of the Universe. He lives in England.
Also by John D. Barrow
Theories of Everything
The Left Hand of Creation (with Joseph Silk)
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (with Frank J. Tipler)
The World Within the World
The Artful Universe
Pi in the Sky
Impossibility
The Origin of the Universe
Between Inner Space and Outer Space
The Universe That Discovered Itself

In Memory of Dennis Sciama
“From time to time young men have brought me, for my advice,
“From time to time young men have brought me, for my advice,
pieces of work, pretty well completed but with no title. This
amazes me, for to me the title is the compass-setting by which the
whole development is steered. Of course, I may change it on second
thoughts, but then whatever emerges in the end is schizophrenic –
one cannot serve two masters.”
John L. Synge
Talking About Relativity