Zero

The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

By: Charles Seife

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything.

In Zero, science journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkers - from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabbalists to today's astrophysicists - who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the big bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.

©2000 Charles Seife (P)2020 Tantor

Zero, a great read

So if your looking for a cheerful book about a number over coming the odds to the accepted into the realms of math.. this book isn’t for you. This book touches on topics from Pythagorean, to string theory. Did I expect to hear about black holes when l picked this up? No! Did I enjoy this read? Very much so

Wonderful book!

A walk through the history of mathematics and physics following the threads of zero and infinity.

The nature of the universe per math. Logic, science

I need to read and listen to this story about zero again and again. Fascinating and beautiful.
Narrator Mr. Souer was absolutely marvelous!

Please. recommend other books read by him.

The book about ZERO is truly fascinating.
Thank you!

Bárbara ☮️😊❤️

An Amazing Story with Science and Math

I was fascinated immediately upon beginning to read this book, recommended to me by someone with fantastic taste in nonfiction. I never expected to be drawn into it like a novel, but here we are. So of course I jumped on the idea of having the story read TO me anytime via audiobook. Not at all disappointed. The narrator fits the material well and now this fascinating and informative tale is one favorite of my repertoire of bedtime stories and auditory companions in my massive audiobook collection.

It’s Everything

Zero and Infinity begin and end in each other eternally, our reality being the dance in between. Seif tells this universal story pragmatically, scientifically, mathematically, poetically, convincingly, and eloquently—in writing twenty some years ago, and now in audio form.

math

i really enjoyed the history associated with zero and infinity. my ears glazed over a bit when listening to the equations read, but that was a small part of it all,

Who knew zero could be such a big deal!!

The book is told with both intellectual rigor and stylish panache. It was a GREAT listen!!

Overall decent

I feel the author could’ve written this book in an hour. That being said it digs into the history of the number zero, it gives its origin stories, the good the bad, and the stupid behind the number zero

Needs PDF diagram

Liked the history of zero. I was a bit lost with the theories of string theory and relativity.

Something about nothing!

As an elementary school teacher of math I find explaining zero to students most challenging. This book provides historical information that will help me make the concept more understandable.