Something From Nothing

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What on earth, then, can Krauss have been thinking? Well, there is, as it happens, an interesting difference between relativistic quantum field theories and every previous serious candidate for a fundamental physical theory of the world. Every previous such theory counted material particles among the concrete, fundamental, eternally persisting elementary physical stuff of the world — and relativistic quantum field theories, interestingly and emphatically and unprecedentedly, do not. According to relativistic quantum field theories, particles are to be understood, rather, as specific arrangements of the fields. Certain ­arrangements of the fields, for instance, correspond to there being 14 particles in the universe, and certain other arrangements correspond to there being 276 particles, and certain other arrangements correspond to there being an infinite number of particles, and certain other arrangements correspond to there being no particles at all. And those last arrangements are referred to, in the jargon of quantum field theories, for obvious reasons, as “vacuum” states. Krauss seems to be thinking that these vacuum states amount to the relativistic-­quantum-field-theoretical version of there not being any physical stuff at all. And he has an argument — or thinks he does — that the laws of relativistic quantum field theories entail that vacuum states are unstable. And that, in a nutshell, is the account he proposes of why there should be something rather than nothing.

In fact—and this is the essential point— Krauss, Dawkins and the like can’t do science without philosophy. While scientists are usually seeking to understand physical cause and effect, science itself is built on philosophical principles that are not physical themselves—they are beyond the physical (metaphysical). Those principles help the scientist make precise definitions and clear distinctions and then interpret all the relevant data rationally. ii. The theme of this story is that special things can always be reusable and made into something new.I love Jewish folktales! This story is an adapted Jewish folktale I enjoyed from the first read. I like its repetitive refrain, warmth of family life, and richly colored illustrations. I was surprised it took me a couple of readings before I noticed the parallel story with the mice! I read this out loud to children and adults alike. A quantum vacuum, on the other hand, is something—it consists of fields of fluctuating energy from which particles appear to pop in and out of existence. Whether these particles are uncaused, or are caused but are merely unpredictable to us, is unknown. There are ten different models of the quantum level, and no one knows which is correct. What we do know is that, whatever is happening there, it is not creation out of nothing. Moreover, the vacuum itself had a beginning and therefore needs a cause. It is not how I came to be published. That took fifteen years and umpty zillion rejection slips to accomplish.

Carroll, Sean (April 28, 2012). "A Universe from Nothing?". Cosmic Variance Blog. Discover magazine. Archived from the original on May 10, 2016 . Retrieved December 7, 2018. Reynosa, Peter (2016-04-12). "Some of the Changes Lawrence M. Krauss Should Make to the Second Edition of "A Universe From Nothing" ". Huffington Post . Retrieved April 13, 2016.This is exactly the kind of book I would have loved as a kid, would have loved reading to my kids, and hope to someday read to my grandkids. It really is just about as perfect of a children's book as I can imagine. Well, that solves that then. If the guy’s a moron, the non-moron must be right. Right? Actually, on several occasions in this book, Dr. Krauss confuses even non-moronic readers when he admits Dr. Albert’s point in advance—namely, that the “nothing” Krauss is talking about is not exactly the nothing from which the universe came. Dr. Krauss even puts his “nothing” in quotation marks like I just did. What can I tell you about myself? I like to make up stories and draw pictures. I like to go ice skating, to the movies and I love reading books.