This Very Short Introduction tells you everything about 'nothing' - it is the story of how scientists have been puzzled by the physical problem of what remains when you take all the matter away. A lively and stimulating guide, taking the reader from ancient ideas and cultural superstitions about the void, via the theories of Newton and Einstein, to the frontiers of current research in today's powerful particle accelerators Reveals how the vacuum is far from being empty - that in fact it seethes with particles that spontaneously erupt into being - and how this provides fascinating clues about how the universe began, and what was there before Tells the tale of the mysterious 'aether' that was long ago supposed to permeate the void - how Einstein did away with it, and how the latest research into the 'Higgs field' may mean it is making a comeback Asks fascinating questions such as: Would nothing exist if there was no one to observe it? Where did everything come from? What lies outside the universe, and what is it expanding into?