Quantum Foam and Loop Quantum gravity | The nature of nothing
What is nothing? This is a question that has bothered philosophers as far back as the ancient Greeks, where they debated the nature of the void. They had long discussions trying to determine whether nothing is something. While the philosophical facets of this question pose some interest, the question is also one that the scientific community has addressed. (Big Think’s Dr. Karam Ouharou has an article describing the four definitions of “nothing.”) It’s nothing, really What would happen if scientists took a container and removed all the air out of it, creating an ideal vacuum that was entirely devoid of matter? The removal of matter would mean that energy would remain. Much in the same way that the energy from the Sun can cross to the Earth through empty space, heat from outside the container would radiate into the container. Thus, the container wouldn’t be truly empty. However, what if scientists also cooled the container to the lowest possible temperature (absolute zero), so it ...