Customer Reviews

Nothingness: The Science Of Empty Space (Helix Books)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The first law of quantum mechanics is: take an innocent word like "empty" and show that it really means its exact opposite. Genz's ramble through the history of the physics and philosophy of so-called empty space is well worth a read. Practically every page has insights that I haven't seen in any another treatment of this subject. The book is bound to provoke thought and discussion. But brace yourself. It's no easy read. The main problem is organization -- sometimes you feel adrift in a void, with no reference points to tell you where the argument is going and why. The book is a translation from German, and although individual sentences are clear and often engrossing, a stronger editorial hand would have been welcome. The English edition does contain some new information, such as the recent experimental demonstration of the bizarre "Casimir effect", but misses out on new evidence and theories for the cosmological constant.

One reviewer states this is a rehash of "The Book Of Nothing" by John Barrow.
Hello! The Genz book was written several years prior to the Barrow text.
tyvm

This is a multi-faceted masterpiece of science and serious philosophy. Not for New Age-ists or the intellectually lazy, this book endeavors to shed light on the perplexing question of "nothing". Nothing ain't nothing. A treasure for science and philosophy advocates, historians of science, and -- by the way -- those who would like to treat their students to a novel approach to the questions of at least two epochs of learning.

I was excited to finally start reading this book but sadly could barely finish the first two chapters. As other reviewers mentioned, this organization of this book is bothersome and distracting. So much so that I decided not to waste my time but to try Barrow's The Book of Nothing.

This is a fine work. It covers the history, philosophy and physics of empty space. This is not your typical book of fluff, which is normally what you get on topics of this sort. The author is a physicist who has a firm hold of the philosophical concerns that come with it. Very enjoyable and stimulating. The style and organization of the author are fairly poor, but made up, in my opinion, by the content.

The historical account of "nothingness" is fabulously done. He works his way from ancient Greece to modern science. What I really like, although he doesn't say this explicitly, is that this work demonstrates where the separation between philosophy and science occurs. With a minor inference, one can even posit why this occurred, giving the reader some elementary understanding that philosophy and physics have a dynamic relationship. I particularly loved the accounts of the history of science given from the 1500's to 1800's.

I wish he would do a sequel, a slightly more technical version for us physicists.

Very interseting stuff.

A disappointing read; Tries to construct the whole treatment from various pespectives; historical and scientific.. However, the book falls short of any serious merits that would make this recommended reading. Possibly intersting for the uninitiated? The book holds a lot of unrealized potential in the treatment of this subject so full of possibilities.

J. Richard Gott's _Time Travel in Einstein's Universe_ does a much better job than Genz does, and Genz just rehashes the content of John D. Barrow's _The Book of Nothing_. There's no need for yet another book about the same thing with nothing else to say about it.

Shows that the boundaries between science, religion, and philosophy have always been arbitrary and meaningless. The discussion of the Casimir effect - the finding that the vacuum exerts pressure - is mind blowing. Those who are familiar with Zen will be struck by the parodoxical finding that nothing is not nothing at all, just as Zen tradition maintains. Very perplexing.

Genz tries to put empty space into a few words [9 Chapters] but ends the book on P. 312 with "the epilogue of this book may serve as the prologue for physics of the future." In a word he ends where he begins-lost in space.

Try to put one of his statements in context: "The fluctuations of zero point energy are real and measurable [Casimir effect], even if the zero-point energy itself is not." Whether space can be empty, he asserts, depends on orientation. As though one had two pairs of glasses with which to view the question. On P. 202 he writes, "Since we do not yet have a theory that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics, anything we might say about fluctuations of the fields of general relativity must remain mere speculation."

Genz relishes the idea that Aristotle flatly denied the existence of empty space. He uses modern speculations to agree with Mr. A's s thesis, speculations of Heisenberg's uncertainty relation and speculations about the vacuum fluctuations of zero point energy. Like a politician flipping flapjacks he tosses both something and nothing into the air but nothing comes down. Yes, the smaller the space the higher the velocity and more random the energy movement but what became of those elusive eleven dimensions that string theory promised us?

This was a nice read. There was a little too much history mentioned, but that did not stop stop me from enjoying the book! At times, the book was a tad-bit confusing. The author should have explained certain subjects a little more. But, again, the book was a good read!