Enquiring Minds

The Enquiring Minds Group will discuss Nothing: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close (Oxford University Press, $11.95).  What remains when you take all the matter away? Can empty space--"nothing"--exist? To answer these questions, eminent scientist Frank Close takes us on a lively and accessible journey that ranges from ancient ideas and cultural superstitions to the frontiers of current research, illuminating the story of how scientists have explored the void and the rich discoveries they have made there. Readers will find an enlightening history of the vacuum: how the efforts to make a better vacuum led to the discovery of the electron; the ideas of Newton, Mach, and Einstein on the nature of space and time; the mysterious aether and how Einstein did away with it; and the latest ideas that the vacuum is filled with the Higgs field. The story ranges from the absolute zero of temperature and the seething vacuum of virtual particles and anti-particles that fills space, to the extreme heat and energy of the early universe.

Event date: 

Thursday, July 23, 2015 - 6:30pm
Nothing: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) By Frank Close Cover Image
$12.99
ISBN: 9780199225866
Availability: On our shelves as of last inventory update.
Published: Oxford University Press, USA - July 26th, 2009

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