Zero

The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Charles Seife

$24.99

Paperback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English

Souvenir Press
12 October 2000

Biography: general; Mathematics & Sciences; Philosophy of mathematics; History of science; Popular science

Within the concept of zero lies a philosophical and scientific history of Mankind. The Babylonians invented zero, it was banned by the Greeks while on the eve of the Millennium zero was feared to be a timebomb within the world s computer systems. There was a time when zero did not exist, the concept of zero is a relatively recent Eastern concept and for centuries there was a struggle over its very existence. For many cultures zero represented the void and it could prove to undo the framework of logic. It was seen as an alien concept that could shatter the framework of Christianity and science yet European acceptance of zero as a philosophical concept was at the centre of the Renaissance.

Over three thousand years the concept of zero has been at the heart of the intellectual debates that have created our culture. In the first millennium zero lay at the heart of the debate between Eastern and Western religion, while after the Renaissance zero was at the centre of the struggle between religion and science. Zero's power comes from its ability to disrupt the laws of physics and it may hold the secret of the cosmos. From the nothingness of a vacuum came our universe, if our universe was born in zero so zero could hold the existence of an infinite number of other universes

By: Charles Seife
Imprint: Souvenir Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 196mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 177g
ISBN: 9780285635944
ISBN 10: 0285635948
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 12 October 2000
Audience: General/trade , General/trade , ELT Advanced , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Charles Seife earned his BA in mathematics from Princeton University, an MS in mathematics from Yale University, and an MS in journalism from Columbia University. Trained by such mathematicians as Andrew Wiles, who solved Fermat's Last Theorem, and John Conway, who invented the 'game of life', Seife has done research in probability theory, artificial intelligence, signal processing, and the visualisation of the multidimensional spaces. He has worked for the Department of Defense and is currently an American correspondent for New Scientist. He has also written for numerous other publications including Scientific American, Science, The Economist, and Wired UK.

Reviews for Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

This is one of the best-written popular science books to have come this way for quite a while. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian * A witty but lucid account... A must for armchair logicians. * Focus * A breathless tour of the 'dangerous idea' of zero. * New Scientist * Seife is a gifted explicator of hard science. * Spectator * Moves from Pythagoras to Hawking, accompanying his arguments with well laid-out graphs. A painless way to acquire complex knowledge. * Catholic Herald *