The Void

THE VOID FRANK CLOSE

Nothing is an immense subject. Philosophically speaking, can it even exist? How has the concept developed since the age when it was called ether? And for the scientist, how does nothing affect the structure of matter? Close, a particle physicist at Oxford University, covers these topics as well as the basics of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and cosmology for people with little knowledge of physics. Close explores today's science in a chapter on the Higgs vacuum (the counterpart to the Higgs boson particle). The Higgs vacuum is a hypothetical field that pervades space and whose presence gives matter its mass. Though this quantum void is perhaps most relevant to the book's topic, after all else, Close pays the Higgs boson and vacuum relatively little attention. Oxford Univ. Press, 2008, 166 p., hardcover, $19.50.

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