“The physicist's concept of nothing—the vacuum… began as empty space—the void… turned into a stagnant ether through which all the motions of the Universe swam, vanished in Einstein's hands, then re-emerged in the twentieth-century quantum picture of how Nature works.”

Source: The Book of Nothing (2009), chapter nought "Nothingology—Flying to Nowhere"

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John D. Barrow 58
British scientist 1952–2020

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...Gradually, this exotic new picture of quantum nothingness succumbed to experimental exploration... in the form of vacuum tubes, light bulbs and X-rays. Now the 'empty' space itself started to be probed. ...There was always something left: a vacuum energy that permeated every fibre of the Universe.
Source: The Book of Nothing (2009), chapter nought "Nothingology—Flying to Nowhere"

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