Challenging, But Accessible and Rewarding For A Curious Amateur

Here's the thing - books like this, which are aimed at motivated and fairly well versed amateurs, are going to disappoint lots of readers. Professionals in the field will find a book like this inadequate, shallow, and incomplete. Readers with no background will probably find themselves very lost very early on. (I'm like that with any book about music composition or theory.) If you're somewhere in the middle - you've read your Hawking, some Rovelli, and so on - then this might be of interest and it will probably introduce you to a number of insights, explanations and approaches that will add to your understanding of the topic.

I'd say that I really understood about half of the book, sort of got about another quarter, and didn't really follow the remaining quarter. The Aristotle, Newton, Leibniz, Maxwell history wasn't exactly new, but Weatherall's efficient summary helped get it reorganized in my head. The implications of Einstein's work on relativity for space-time was very clear. The thorough section on Maxwell was new to me and very interesting, as were Minkowski and then Schwarzschild space-time. Schwarzschild's work on black holes was also especially clear. The Dirac/Jordan and Feynman/Schwinger sections were fascinating. On balance, I finished with a much better general understanding of quantum field theory, and especially the vacuum state in quantum field theory, and a broader level of comfort with many of the most interesting current topics. I'm not sure you could ask for much more than that from a popular science book on such a demanding subject.

So, I don't think there's a single book that will serve as a pure and radiant guiding light to the mysteries of modern physics. Different books have different strengths and weaknesses and will illuminate to greater or lesser effect. That's why I'm always interested in new popular science works. This one was ambitious and rewarding and, at least for me, filled in some gaps and revisited some areas in which I'm shaky. As a bonus, the author's style was amiable, practical and earnest in an inviting way, so I felt he was trying to teach at least as hard as I was trying to learn, which I appreciated.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Emerging science writer James Owen Weatherall tackles the well-known concept of nothing through the lens of modern physics. From ancient philosophers to Newtonian physics to relativity and quantum theory, the definition of nothing is constantly redefined. Weatherall focuses on three main subjects—the beginning of modern physics with Newton and Leibniz, relativity with Einstein and Maxwell, and quantum theory with Dirac and Feynman and Schwinger et al.

You might think nothing is just the absence of something, which is what Isaac Newton believed. But according to general relativity and quantum field theory, empty space like Newton imagined is impossible. For example, is an electromagnetic field with no oscillations something, or is a zero field nothing? As it turns out, nothing itself is a kind of something, and physics has redefined its language as we develop better understanding. Indeed, quantum physics tell us that a vacuum is only the low probability of a particle popping in and out of existence and string theory indicates there are likely 10 to the 500th vacuum states possible.

Although there is some good science in here, Void is primarily a text on the people of science. In addition to breaking up the science, the focus on generational rivals and personality tidbits provides a rich tapestry of biography and history. The huge reference section illustrates the research required for this book, the footnotes of which are scattered throughout the text, and are both useful and humorous—a rare combination.

In the end, Void thwarts my expectations. Instead of an explanation of the physics of nothing through black holes, Weatherall showcases the radically different conceptions of the absence of something through the history of physics, highlighting how even the definition of nothing has changed and will continue to change. I love that this book presents physics as an act in progress instead of some dusty textbook!

Recommended for popular science readers who enjoy the real-life struggles of the scientist as well as the science itself!