In Zero: the Biography of a Dangerous Idea, Seife first gives the history of the zero, in mathematics and social history, as well as it's non-history (why it was rejected in some cultures). He explains the resistance of the Greeks to the idea of the zero, why the Catholic Church rejected the zero and also how it was used in much earlier societies. These first chapters are well worth reading, blending history, math and mathematical history in a fascinating tale.

From there, the author begins to blend the idea of zero with other "dangerous" mathematical ideas (including "infinity"), and with his intermingling of ideas he looses the persuasiveness of his argument. It's hard to follow and/or believe that "zero" did this or that, when the zero he is talking about isn't actually "zero". Confused? So was I. He seemed to loose his focus and clarity from around chapter 6 to the end.

There are some rather high mathematical principals and examples throughout the book, which were difficult for me (not the world's best mathematician) to follow, and Seife often assumes that if one is reading Zero, then one is a mathematician, not a layman. This occurred more often in the later chapters which were troublesome in other ways, so I might just not have been as willing to try to understand the math, as I was having a hard time understanding the author's arguments.

On the whole, Zero: the Biography of a Dangerous Idea felt like a thesis that was expounded out to be a full-length book. It would have been much better, in my opinion, if Seife had stopped at around chapter 5, the first chapters being where his knowledge, insight and humor shone through.

This book can be read on two levels: 1) History, insight, personality and amusement or 2) technical terms and formula. Most of us will want to forget the second part and concentrate on the first part. Do that and this is a really good book.

Read for the first reason, this is a fascinating, enjoyable, intriguing, informative, even useful read. Read how some of the great names in mathmatics, history, logic, even religion, lived and died, how the church killed people because they believed in zero, the void, the nothingness and the infinity.

Read for the second reason--logic, high math and calculus--it is above most, if not all, casual readers.

The key is knowing how to read the book, knowing when to read, laugh, learn and be amused and when to skip over the technical "stuff."

This book is highly recommended--you will find it fascinating, amusing, sometimes amazing and educational--if you read it right!!

I'll admit, writing a book about nothing and making it exciting is probably a challenging thing to do. This is going to be a rather odd thing to bring up at the start of the review, but I have to ask did people read a different book than I did? Seriously, I read through just about every negative review and the points made against the book are barely in the book I read. If anything, they focus in on a minor detail, interpret it wrong, and then give the book a one star. I digress, let me get to the review and then I may go over some points to refute.

This book focuses on the history of Zero for the most part. In there it touches upon historical moments in mathematics and later in physics as it gets to the modern scientific era. I personally found the research on the early history quite on point and very fun to read (there's a lengthy bibliography at the end if you feel the need to see his words backed up). The sensational writing didn't bother me at all, because I realize the relationship between the title and the style. Seife is trying to make nothing exciting! If you didn't get that point or got annoyed with that style then you missed out on a really fun read. The author tried to include fairly random historical anecdotes about the people discussed to lighten the mood in the book. I thought these were fun additions and interesting to read as well.

Overall the book is written in decently easy to understand language. I have a fairly decent mathematical background and I didn't feel I really needed to know everything to read the first half of the book. However, when Seife starts delving into concepts like Calculus and Set Theory I think knowing how to do calculus was definitely a help in understanding this section. If you're more of a lay reader and more interested in the history than the math then this book really might be a bad choice. The first part is absolutely fascinating, but it does get confusing towards the end, especially when he starts delving into Quantum Theory and Particle Physics.

One aspect on the section of early history that I found particularly fascinating was the relation of zero to philosophy. The ancients were heavily influenced by beliefs and philosophy so it's not much of a stretch to think this influence stretched beyond just those subjects and into math and science. So when Pythagoras and Aristotle reject notions of the void philosophically it's reasonable to assume they would find such notions nonsense mathematically. For a long time, and still today, Math is merely a representation of the world we see and observe. They didn't observe voids or vacuum's during Aristotle's time so naturally they wouldn't exactly latch onto it as a real possibility. One thing that really fascinated me was the possible hindrance philosophy and belief (or religion) had in holding back mankind's ability to progress mathematically. The main reason that zero didn't make it into the western world probably had more to do with the stranglehold the Romans put on the people than with their unwilling to believe in the void or infinity, which is also why it was trade that finally used zero. However, there were intellectuals alive and breathing during the Dark Ages and a lot of their hindrance to accept concepts like zero was philosophical. The Church had adopted Aristotle's model of the universe and it was blatantly wrong. (This book does not say Aristotle is at fault for holding back people philosophically, it merely says his view/model, that the Earth is the center of the universe, is wrong. Which it is.) However, the rising power of the Catholic Church adopted his explanation and said it was a fact and back then their word was law. Once mathematics and science came across discrepancies in that proof then Church asserted its power and only tried to tighten its grip on those communities until people revolted against it. I'm not saying zero is the reason we got out of the Dark Ages, but it didn't hurt us any! It probably helped us a lot more in the long run. My point in bringing this up is that things like belief and philosophy can hinder progress in fields like the sciences. (These are not beliefs, as in making assumptions about testable criteria by the way.) It seems to make more sense, that if you must derive some divine notion, you would interpret the data, not try to fit the data into a preconceived belief. Thus belief would interpret the math and math would not interpret the belief. The ancients had this backwards for a long time, which I think that's a major factor and this book touches upon that.

As I mentioned above the book can change gears into something very complicated. I think this is kind of the downfall of this book for some people because the confusing explanations at the end leave them on a low note. As the book progressed and got beyond my mathematical understanding I found the explanations a lot more confusing. When it finally got out of the confusing areas I think it picked up again during the sections on the expansion of the universe. I enjoyed the parts of Zero Point energy, but I'm not entirely sure it's written in a fashion that is easily understood. Seife makes comments in a very historical manner and I think that really confuses people at times. Such as one reviewer complained that the books information is outdated on Vacuums and concepts like limitless energy. However, this book does touch on that subject during its discussion of Zero Point energy, maybe it was merely presented in a way that confused readers? I'm not entirely sure; I didn't personally feel confused until he started talking about Set Theory, which I clearly need to brush up on.

In the end I simply loved this book. I tore through it in a mere three days and I'm a pretty slow reader. I personally didn't mind the sensationalizing of zero to fairly emphatic levels. This is a book about nothing after all and you might as well make it sound really exciting! Maybe there should've been more exclamation points so we can see how impressive the author's thoughts really are! Anyway I had fun with this book, but I wouldn't recommend it to people that haven't made it beyond calculus or else the second half might get a little confusing. Previously understanding Einstein's work would be a bonus to getting through this book as well. Other than that the first half is absolutely fascinating and I feel I walked away with more knowledge than I went in even if the book repeated a lot of things I already knew.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The thing I liked most about Zero was the humor & sarcasm thrown in by the author. It breaks up the seriousness & complexity of some of the topics he covers & relates to zero (i.e. Calculus, Quantum Physics). Seife gave plenty of examples & metaphors to help the average joe understand the overall concepts. He also goes deeper for those readers that are math buffs.

While the entire concept of zero/infinity is constantly repeated throughout the book, I like the way the book was organized: chonologically. Zero begins with a history/religion lesson as it discusses zero's origin. Then, the book moves into philosophy/mathematics & zero's role. Last, the book covers topics on a much bigger scale such as astrology/physics/Big Bang theory, and how zero will affect the future.

Zero kept me entertained, challenged me to think abstractly regarding religion/philosophy/our universe, and kept the tone very light. I have always struggled with math & hated the subject, but this book is more than a math lesson! Try it!

The book was something like 200 pages, but it read like it was a little more than that.

The good points:

1. An interesting demonstration of how things that are only of moment to intellectuals at one point in time become things of great significance later.

2. An interesting demonstration of how ugly the fight for influence can be. (It is interesting to speculate that people now are no different to what they have been for the last 250,000 years, and that the motives of people who seek to "educate" others about environmentalism/ military-industrial complexes/ etc.) may not be as pure as what they seem.

3. The perspective on the dynamics of the Catholic Church's suppression of contrary ideas was also very interesting. Many people (preferring to spout anti-religious screed) do not treat this fact as one set of intellectuals fighting to impose their vision to the detriment of some other set of intellectuals' vision-- which it in fact seems to be.

4. It was interesting to note how slow the development of ideas was. Can a person really believe that it took nearly a thousand years to popularize the number "0" until he reads this book?

Bad points:

1. The treatment of differential calculus was diminished by the use of strange notation. It might have been easier to show how this would come up in the context of trying to solve a real problem rather than just presenting the idea the way that it was presented.

2. The treatment of integral calculus is simply poor. He could have spent a few more pages on it without diminishing the book.

3. The treatment of the Riemann plane was not good, either. I understood the calculus before reading the book, and so I could see what he was trying to get at. However, I didn't understand much of anything after that. So the weakness of the explanations became more evident when delving into new topics.

4. The book could have used some additional appendices to flush out explanations that the author didn't want to put in the text of the book.

5. The topic of the book seems to become a bit stretched at the end. It goes from explaining the intellectual history of zero to its uses in physics, and the transition is not smooth. One gets the feeling that the author was stretching to find a connection to finish the book.

All in all, worth the purchase price of a secondhand book.

This book looks at the idea of zero, and its opposite, infinity, in the history of human thought from multiple civilizations, such as the Mayans, Indians, Arabs, ancient Greeks, Renaissance Europe, and China. The book is fast-paced and the author adds in some humor here and there. For a book about math, the subject material was made quite accessible, and the author added in the occasional drawings, proofs and derivations to explain concepts better. Quite an enjoyable read.

I am a math teacher and read this book on recommendation from a fellow math teacher. The book is well-suited for high schoolers (as far as concepts go), but can also be used in middle school. I start by saying that I find history, even the history of math, fascinating; my emphasis in teaching is on the "why" and often times, that answer is found in history or in the field of ethnomathematics. Not only is the book educational, it is extremely well written. Often times it is even funny. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history or math.

This is an interesting book that has some flaws. The most fascinating were the earlier parts of the book that addressed the various cultures around the globe and how their practical needs and philosophical points of view affected their mathematical development, and how the number zero fit into that big picture. As the book progresses the author tries to address cosmology on larger and larger scales, and he stretches things quite a bit. There also seemed to be a good bit of filler. I think if the author had stuck to the more mathematical side of the story this could have made for a really great extended magazine article, such as you might read in The Atlantic.

Who new zero could be so feared by Western Civilization? We musn't let new ideas scare us away from exploration. No one...not government...not church...not education has that right. With zero forbidden by these three bastions of civilization, we lost 1000 years of knowledge.
"Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife is a wonderful trip through the development and evolution of zero and infinity; sometimes quirky, sometimes humorous, but always a little sad that knowledge was forbidden.
You don't have to be a math genius to read it...only curious.

This book was splendid. Seife was one of those rare (but, thankfully, increasingly less rare as time progresses) writer-scientists who write about conventionally dry and largely unaccessible topics in a lucid, beautiful, elegant, and often entertaining way. Reading this book not only made me laugh out loud (a curious enough phenomenon for a book that has math as its premise) but increased my appreciation not only for the concepts but for literature. Seife belongs to the welcome order of writers of Alan Lightman (of Einstein's Dreams). This book is a lovely little gem.

Not only has zero not always existed, numbers aren't quite as concrete as our math teachers would have us believe. Seife presents the entire history of counting and numbers before getting into the history, philosophy and theology surrounding the number zero (and frequently, infinity).
It helps to be somewhat comfortable with mathematical concepts, but it is not mandatory at all. Nor is it mandatory to know much about Greek philosophy-and the two get about as much attention.
This is an excellent and sweeping history of how religion has had to change itself because of the immutable idea of nothingness. This also goes into the history of physics, particularly quantum physics and string theory, and astronomy. This is because, in almost all situations, mathematical theorums work beautifully and explain nature and the cosmos-until you have to account for zero.

Well writen and researched. Highly recommended for any level reader-layman or expert.

This book contains many interesting tidbits of information and a general timeline of the concept of zero that is intriguing. It is sometimes a battle to get through the author's meandering style and I was tempted to put the book down many times (but the information kept me reading). If the author took out all of the times he wrote something like, "but they didn't recognize the power of zero," the book would be half it's size and much better for it.

The book is well written, and travels smoothly. The first portion is more to my interests, that is, how ancient cultures used or refused Zero, and how it chaped the modern world.

The last third of the book is how zero affects physics, etc. I found it interesting, but quite a bit different, and (for me, with a weak physics background) a little more difficult to follow the premise

I will say, I cannot imagine you would be disappointed to read

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea is literally a book about _nothing_. It is a relatively light read about the history of zero, from its invention in India through its banning in Europe (those laws were soon changed as merchants found out how much easier it was to multiply 17 camels times 30 lire than XVII camels times XXX lira ...)

It turns out that medieval Europe was wedded to an Aristotelian conception of the world that barred both nothingness and infinity in its assertion that God existed.

A brief history of how zero came to impact the new Copernican world view and how even nothing and infinity came to be seen as proofs of God's existence (whereas a century or so before they were heretical ideas).

This allowed both Newton and Leibnitz to develop calculus and solve Zeno's Paradox. The book closes with a trip through relativity and quantum theory and a quick look at zero-point energy, black holes, and string theory.

Recommended to anybody who enjoys learning about stuff for its own sake. It's a much lighter book than several of other recommendations that come up on this page. Work for a bright middle school student or the average high school teen, but quite enjoyable.

Everyone in science or math should own this book, because the ideas echo in every corner of our current scientific understandings.

This is quite a captivating study of zero. It progresses from the Greek hatred and subsequent abolishment of zero, and follows it through the ages while it is slowly incorporated into modern mathematics.

Babylonians invented it, Indians worshipped it, Greeks abhorred it. Zero has been a problematic number for a long time. European mathematicians followed Greek footsteps, until they finally realized how important thing zero was for advanced mathematics.

Seife presents us the history of zero and its sister concept infinity, not only in mathematics, but also in physics and quantum mechanics. Zero is an entertaining book, if a bit light. For quick popular science entertainment purposes it's a good choice. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

The first part of this book walks through all the history and philosophy of the concept of zero (and infinity) of the past few thousand years, explaining who did what, when, where, and most importantly, why. The later chapters are devoted to delving in to the more technical aspects of zero (and infinity).

The history is simple, not dry, and a suitable read for anyone. The later chapters require some math background. Although the author explains a lot of the math, you appreciate it better if you have a higher than normal math education.

Heresy within Numerology

"Zero" falls into a very narrow category of books that can be considered a work of art. From the cover, to the interesting last name of the author (near to that of Cypher), to the chapter titles to the way that each consecutive chapter integrates with their predecessors. Do not be fooled by the deceptive size of this book, as the thoughts it inspires may fill the notebooks and empty the ink from pens you keep nearby.

The book centers on the twins--Zero and Infinity. These two heretics are abhorred by nature, yet have been sirens to many of the greatest minds this world has ever known. Our story begins with the chapter "Null and Void," when the implosive power of Zero disables the USS Yorktown. Once the book has opened with such a display of power, it immediately travels backwards in time to when mortals first discovered these two forces, then follows a trail of those lunatics and bodies that dared seek the twins.

Even the non-numerically oriented should find inspiration and insight buried between the lines and diagrams of this book. The admixture of mathematics, physics and philosophy--even alchemy--leaves open this book's audience to varied membership.

He's a math dude, age 12. LOVED the book. He also liked the Story of PI.

He's a math dude, age 12. LOVED the book. He also liked the Story of PI.

Very enlightening, I couldn't put it down. People who love numbers will enjoy the numerical calculations. The ones who don't will easily understand. And when you finish reading it you will feel like you actually have learned something from it. Zero is not just another book!
It should be required reading in schools.

Well written and informative, this book goes beyond its title and delves into the evolution of thinking using zero as a theme.

Who knew that Zero was such an important number? Seife fully covers the history of Zero in mathematics and its place in the modern theories of physics. This book is easy to read and Seife makes the subject interesting for a person like me who was never a big fan of math and science courses in school.

Who knew that Zero was such an important number? Seife fully covers the history of Zero in mathematics and its place in the modern theories of physics. This book is easy to read and Seife makes the subject interesting for a person like me who was never a big fan of math and science courses in school.

Believe it or not, we once did. In fact, the very concept of zero was banished, yes BANISHED!, not so long ago. But, now we live in a world where zero is fully accepted, if not completely understood. This wonderfully written biography of zero takes the reader down a path of complete understanding. From the very beginnings of the concept of zero all the way up to understanding the problems solved by calculus and the impact of such solutions, Seife delivers with this book.

As someone who flunked out of calculus in college, I wish I had been able to read this book sooner because Seife's layman's language makes a difficult concept easy to understand throughout. He also raises questions in the reader's mind like: Why do we start the counting of time with zero, but start the days of our months with one? Why are we taught to start counting with one instead of zero?

But even more than this, Seife delves into the questions that you may never have asked, but will still be enthralled by his excellent explanation.

If you're not a math lover, you may find this book to be tedious, but if you have even a small appreciation for the nuances of math and how much of our lives math affects, then this book is for you and highly recommended.

You don't have to be a mathematitian to enjoy this book; you just have to be curious about Life. It's astonishing how much numerical confusion is explained by the author. I enjoyed Zero so much that I bought copies for my closest friend and for my father.

I recommend this book highly for those who have a penchant for the unusual in life.

Seife is a great science writer and perhaps at his best discussing the significance of zero.

As Seife points out, zero has much in common with infinity.

Both are numbers that when multiplied by other numbers equal themselves for example and both also figure significantly in questions relating to the nexus between Einsteinian physics and quantum mechanics.

To discover all the ah ha moments one would litterally have to read this award winning book.

But an easy and interesting for instance is Seife in his discussion of the original of universe. A cube is a three dimensional object. Reduced to a page, a square is a two dimensional object. Reduced to a line it becomes a one dimensional object and finally reduced to a point it becomes a zero dimensional object.

It was such a zero dimensional object which described the universe just prior to the big bang.

And when that one event -- the big bang -- was divided by the then existing zero dimensional universe, the result was, mathemitically at least, infinity.

So in the beginning, and along the way, the story of zero is sort of the story of creation.

Highly recommended!

A very fast and entertaining read of a fascinating subject. The voice never comes across as pedantic or heavy; instead, a bracing exposition which, again and again, evoked that "aha!" moment when, an otherwise common, everyday concept, rewards close examination with beautiful complexity and universal significance. Loved it and heartily recommend.

Louis Ravenet

I had this book on my wish list and recieved it as an early gift this Christmas. Once I picked it up I could not put it down. Who would think such a number or non-number could make such and impact on society. Now to find someone to talk to about the book makes it frustrating.

Describing how "Zero" is written would be describing how a kid would act in a candy store. Seife has a wealth of facts at his disposal, but it seems as if he holds on to them so dearly that didn't want to leave a single one out. Although many of the facts are interesting, all in all the read feels very superficial, as if the author was unwilling to engage in the deep specifics of the topic. With a book on a mathematical concept like zero, it would seem like there would be, perhaps, proofs, equations, graphs, etc., but these are fairly sparse. The illustrations are done very nicely, and there are a fair amount, but there is a lack of math.

For example, the last forty pages of the book deal with quantum physics. Seife breezes through, functionally, the whole history of quantum physics, relativity; everything from the Michelson-Morley experiment forward. This leaves the reader bombarded with name-dropping, a number of equations (like the Schrodinger equation and Einstein's equations on relativity) that aren't explained, let alone printed, and a number of hazy concepts that we never fully understand. It is very hard for a reader to appreciate the intricacies of MANY of these concepts, simply because they are never presented in great detail.

The beginning of the book, an exposition on where zero originated, and much of the first half is well-written, though. Sensationalist at times (as in the example of the USS Yorktown) but still overall good.

If you're looking for a book that gives you the "quick and dirty" explanation of zero and its origins, and you're not a math person, this book is a good bet. However, if you're looking for something a little more in-depth, perhaps it is best to browse for a little while longer.

I bought this book on a whim one day after hearing a guy on the radio talk about some mathmatical wizardry, he referred to himself as "the human calculator." That being said, I loved this book for its conversational aspect while yet retaining the intellegence with which Safire writes.

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea is a tour of the historical advances that were made in mathematics and science due to the use or misuse of the dual ocncepts of Zero and Infinity. The author tours throught the ages as he traces the path that humankind has taken with this concept and its implications.

The book starts with the original counts being performed using wolf bones. Of course, when you are counting things, there is no need for a zero since it counts nothing, which you would therefore not need to count. The next step was to ancient Egypt where counting continued in higher quantities but Geometry also got started based on the need to reestablish property lines following flooding on the Nile; then the story moves on to Greece and the Grecians fascination with Geometry and its improvements.

The story goes on to cover the philosophical struggles between various western factions as the Greeks really did not like the concept of nothing and how that translated eventually to the Catholic church's freezing of culture in the dark ages. On the other hand, the story shifts to Babylon and the Arab culture where the duality of nature was much more accepted. That is why we use the Arab numerals and why we have zero and infinity. The story continues and goes all the way through Einstein's relativity theories and on to the String theory of today.

This is quite a tour de force as the whole story is told in 215 small pages with many historical anecdotes related in a very humourous way. The book is simply a pleasure to read and I found myself at time laughing out loud. The five appendices at the end are dedicated to some more formal descriptions of certain concepts. For instance, the first appendix shows what zero can do to logic as the author manages to construct a proof that Winston Churchill was a carrot. The last appendix is just as tongue in cheek with the "proof" of how you can construct your very own wormhole in your own house!

If you are a person who is generally curious about science, history, mathematics, and in general would read Scientific American for the fun of it, then you would be an excellent audience for this book. I recommend it highly.

This was a great book. I took it on a trip, and it provided sufficient reading for a couple plane trips and a couple boring nights. Though written by a mathematician, it's appropriate for nearly any audience, and I've had no trouble passing it off to friends who aren't engineers.

If you'd like to understand how zero came into the number system, what the religious and philisopical implications and resistances were, and how zero plays a central role in current scientific research, this book lays it all out concisely and pleasurably.

Zero is the most interesting book I have ever read. It ponders the existence of infinitely small amounts of everything as well as infinitely large amounts. Everything can be divided into an infinite amount of pieces, but although the size of the pieces decreases as the amount of pieces increases, the sizes will always approach zero, but never hit it. How can zero exist as a number then? Zero began as a place holder in Babylonian and Mayan societies. It was accepted as a place holder in some societies, while rejected in others. Zero does not conform to the laws of mathematics, and therefore became a difficult concept to accept. Since it did not fit in with laws, it could destroy all logic. Charles Seife wrote this "biography" as a result of his love of math and science, and his desire to inflict logic upon others. While this book provides for interesting intellectual insight into the history of math and the importance of logic, it also offers the reader a feeling of relative size, both massive and miniscule, in comparison to the rest of the world.

Here is a mostly enjoyable work of popular science in which we learn the true power of zero, which is far from nothing. The odd mathematical properties of zero have had vast implications in the development of math and science, and even intellectual and cultural development around the world. Zero is extremely important for, and even dangerous to, time-tested conceptions of reality. Most of this book provides a perfectly enjoyable history of zero as an idea. However, Charles Seife falls into the trap that often afflicts pop science books, in that he tries to soup up his narrative by claiming that his subject (zero) is connected to just about everything else in the universe. Seife's attempted connection to matters of both western and eastern religion stretch the limits of believability, as do his attempts to tie the numerical version of zero to vast concepts of the void and infinity in science and philosophy. Therefore, the book gets farther and farther away from the history of the idea of zero, which is inherent in the book's title, and gets stuck in esoteric matters of advanced physics and calculus. At this point Seife is reduced to non-sequiturs about how zero is still a part of the discussion, although you wouldn't really think so otherwise. This is still a quite successful work of popular science (and math), though Seife can't quite find the proper balance between zero and infinity – that is, an infinite belief in the importance of zero in everything the reader knows or conceives. [~doomsdayer520~]

Seife's prose can be rather florid, especially in the opening chapter, which is very appropriately numbered 0. He walks you through the efforts by the Old Greeks and Romans to grasp the concept of zero. Hampered by a miserable non-positional numbering system.

En route, he reminds us that the Common Era year numbering system we use skips a zero year between 1 BC and 1 CE. All due to a priest called Bede in the Dark Ages, who was ignorant of zero.

Labouriously and slowly, the idea of zero jelled in maths. But Seife also manages to corral in discussion of other ideas that gave similar problems. Like imaginary numbers, which struggled for centuries for a correct resolution. Physics is also dragged in, over the concept of an absolute zero temperature. Here, perhaps, the book's argument is more of an analogy.

Zero is an amusing book telling the story of zero and infinity and their struggle to be understood and accepted by Western thinkers. Seife explains zero's evolution from a place-holder, to a digit, to a value, to the idea of an absolute zero, and all the way to the end of space and time - the whole while zero continues to be an enigma. He shows how the idea of zero has influenced music, art, theology, and science; how zero is connected with major leaps in human advancement; and, at the same time, how zero threatens the basics of math, science, and even rationality.

This book is a good read for a numerology student, a theology student, a philosophy student, a scientist, or a mathematician. One should have at least a basic understanding of algebra to grasp some of this book, but the book will go as far a set theory, complex planes, quantum mechanics, and even the theory of relativity. In general, the book is an easy and quick read, but the more background the reader has in mathematics the better.

Ultimately, this book offers little for practical application. I don't think anyone is going to start building their own wormhole time machine anytime soon. However, it is amusing to see all the connections with which zero is intertwined. One should not go so far as to contribute the concepts of zero and infinity to the advancement of all human endeavors, but this book does show how a seemingly simple concept can be both enlightening and damning.

This book provides a solid history of mathematics and science in layman's terms. If that is what you are looking for, then this would be a decent book for you. If you are already familiar with Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, then this book will not contain too many surprises.

The author tries to make zero and infinity the center of not only math and science, but also of religion. He relies upon a barrage of platitudes like "God was found in infinity - and in zero" to make his case. While science and religion certainly have a complex relationship, the author cannot provide much substance to his arguments.

For those looking for a solid review of the history of science, I would recommend Mlodinow's "Euclid's Window." For those looking for an interesting history of a specific number, I would recommend Livio's "Golden Ratio."

At first I thought I got a loser of a book, but it soon turned to something that pulled my interest. That zero is a recent concept in mathematics and how it developed is very interesting especially for those who think they know about everything there is about everything, like I do. It does fill that gap. After reading this book, I do know everything. You posers are a little light without this book.

This book is about the history of zero, from ancient times to modern concepts. It's quite interesting and encompasses a lot of mathematics and philosophy as well as a bit of physics.

Although the book reads well, is nicely documented, and extensively researched, the author has a style that I found aggravating; his frequent use of poetic hyperbole. This limits the book's value for someone unfamiliar with basic concepts in mathematics and physics.

I'm not sure why Seife choose this style. There seems to be a movement (hopefully short lived) among science writers to dress up science and mathematics in poetic, flowery language. Whatever the reason, science has good reason to use strict meanings for words and a disciplined approach to scientific concepts. When authors poetically use words in technically incorrect ways they can make the prose pretty, but they often create confusion.

For example, Saif says "Zero and infinity are eternally locked in a struggle to engulf all the numbers. Like a Manichaean nightmare, the two sit on opposite poles of the number sphere, sucking numbers in like tiny black holes." [p. 145]

From a mathematical point of view this is pure gibberish. If one's intent is to educate others about mathematics, such poetic hyperbole is not only useless, but counter productive as well. For folks who don't already know a bit about mathematics, Seife's book is as likely to confuse as to educate. For those who already understand the concepts, the poetry might be pleasing, but from an educational point of view the hyperbole found throughout this book is a definite stumbling block.

Another problem I had with this book is the way Seife misstates some key aspects in modern science. For example, on page 171 he asserts the classical definition of a vacuum: "The vacuum, by definition, has nothing in it - no particles, no light, nothing." He then describes the quantum mechanical view of the vacuum, and the zero-point energy. Part of this explanation includes a nice description of the Casimir effect [p. 172], which is a measurement of the literal existence of the "virtual" particles predicted by Quantum Mechanics. What these experiments show is that these "virtual" particles actually exist, and can be detected by the force they exert on closely spaced metal plates. This is actually a beautiful example of how science changed our concept of the vacuum. Classically, we thought of the vacuum as having "nothing in it," but Quantum Mechanics tells us that the classical vacuum cannot exist. But even after his nice explanation of the Casimir effect, Seife goes and spoils it with this absurd statement:

"Casimir realized that he had felt the force of nothing." [p. 172] "This is the force of the vacuum, a force produced by nothing at all. This is the Casimir effect."

It's as if someone asserted that the space around us has "nothing in it," and then rejoices when the wind touches his face, and runs off spouting "I've felt the force of nothing." What the Casimir effect teaches us is that what we thought was "nothing at all" really is something, and that calling them "virtual" particles is just as silly as early mathematicians who called the square root of negative numbers "imaginary."

There are other mistakes as well. For example, on page 178 he says: "The speed of light is the ultimate speed limit; you cannot reach it, much less exceed it. Nature has defended itself from an unruly zero."

But this simply isn't true. Even a casual reader knows that the statement "you cannot reach it" is wrong. After all, photons travel at the speed of light all the time. Furthermore, scientists have known for years that, given the right materials, both the phase velocity and the group velocity of light can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum [Optics and Photonics News, June 2002]. All this is consistent within the framework of relativity, but Seife's hyperbole is likely to mislead the novice. Indeed, recent experiments showing these phenomena have resulted in all sorts of pundits on the Internet claiming that relativity had been falsified.

By getting all wound up with poetic hyperbole about nature "[defending] itself from an unruly zero" the author has, I fear, unwittingly contributed to the confusion of non-scientists about the science of relativity.

I don't mean to give the impression that this is a bad book. I actually found most of it readable and pleasant. I enjoyed the historical aspects and appreciated how the author illustrates the influence of philosophy, and especially religion, in either advancing or retarding cultural acceptance of the concept of zero. I thought he did a particularly nice job of explaining the development of the calculus, and how the concept of zero played its part. As usual, the primary distractions were related to his use of poetic hyperbole, as well as careless analogies. For example, on page 126 he writes:

"... using calculus was as much an act of faith as declaring a belief in god."

This absurd statement was almost certainly made without thinking. After all, even though early mathematicians could not explain why the calculus worked - at least not with rigorous logic - they could demonstrate that it *did* work. Furthermore, anyone could use it. A person didn't have to believe in calculus or work themselves into an emotional frenzy to calculate the volume of a sphere. The same cannot, of course, be said of god.

This could have been a really great book. The subject matter and story of zero are fascinating. Unfortunately, Seife uses too many analogies that are either poor, extreme, or misleading. And his persistent tendency toward exaggeration was a real distraction for me. For these reasons I'd not recommend the book to someone not already somewhat knowledgeable about mathematics and physics - I think it would be too confusing. For those who can read between the lines of poetic hyperbole, though, I think the book is worthwhile.

In fact, the author goes on so many fanciful tangents, I was actually surprised that he didn't mention that zero stars are not allowed in the Amazon rating scheme, because it would crash the whole system. And that's pretty much the tone of this breezy math/science/history book: The number zero or the concept of zero or the acknowledgment of zero challenges, frightens, destroys, and generally wreaks havoc wherever it appears, and, at the same time, the number zero is necessary and important, both in math and in the real world. Frankly, I was disappointed in this little book, though at times it can be charming and there is some interesting history. The book just didn't live up to the hype about the "danger" of zero. I wanted excitement and adventure; I got the history of an interesting number. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had "zero" expectations.

ZERO: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A DANGEROUS IDEA is a book about literally nothing (thankfully, no Seinfeld references). It's a non-fiction book dealing with some concepts that the layman may find difficult. However, it's told with enough clarity and wit that the reader should never feel overwhelmed by the mathematical and scientific terminology. Charles Seife does a fine job of balancing the explanations with the investigations.

I really enjoyed reading this book, though I should point out that I already liked mathematical topics beforehand. Not that I was particularly gifted in mathematics in school, but the fun thing about reading books like this is that one can still think about and ponder the concepts without having to spend several hours a day doing repetitive busywork.

Seife delves deep into the origins of zero. I found it fascinating to see exactly how some cultures simply had no need of zero and how others came to the idea with much resistance. The religious, philosophical, mathematical and scientific ramifications of this discovery are discussed and never fail to be intriguing.

Although zero is what got on the cover and in the title, infinity plays a large part too. The book goes on a short history of major paradigm changes in philosophy, math and physics, pointing out where zero and infinity played major roles in tearing down old schools of thought and building new ones. Zero and infinity complement each other, and the history of zero would be incomplete without demonstrating how contemporaneous theories of infinity influenced it.

I should also mention the book's tone. Although most people wouldn't think of a math text as a jolly read, this one would defy those expectations. You have to admire any book that includes the sentence: "See appendix A for a proof that Winston Churchill was a carrot."

Of course, humor and the whimsical flavor are only the icing. I'll remember a lot of the pure information presented. Some of it is meticulously analyzed, while some facts are just casually offered. Although this is a relatively small book, it feels very dense (in the best possible way). There's a lot here.

I applaud Seife's research and presentation. While it would probably be difficult to make such interesting concepts boring, the writing here is anything but dry. This is the perfect gift for those of us with an interest in math, but without the intense background needed to survive a more mathematician-focused tome.

Charles Seife has written an excellent book on the concept of zero. An idea that had been taken for granted for years. No one really understand the meaning of the value of the concept of zero at first, but once contemplated, the concept is quite ingenious.

I thought Seife did a very admirable job introducing the concept, following along on the chronology and explaining why it was such a devious and subversive concept to the church and to philosophy in general. I found his explanations lucid and clear and the history is quite interesting. The chapter on projective geometry was particularly enlightening.

Where he really shines is when he coupled zero with infinity. I have always had a real problem with the relativity concept, even when I was studying physics. But Seife does an excellent job explaining all of the ideas. Where he falters is where he tries to make the connection between the numbers with the theories of modern physics, perhaps it is the problem with the concept of superstrings that bogs the narrative down into the morass of incomprehention, but the narrative does bog down when it enters this section. Since Brian Green has written a much bigger and thicker book on the subject of superstrings, I would hazard to guess that the fault does not lie with Seife but with the subject, which is, by the way, a sub-area of the book, so I wouldn't worry about it. Even if no one understands the connection between modern physics and zero, the book is a rewarding read.

Entertaining book for students of philosophy, historians, and math neophytes, but Seife's simple-minded application of the principle of the conservation of energy to the quantum electrodynamic sea of spacetimemassenergy, i.e. the "zero point field," among other things, reveals him to be among the least imaginitive of physicists. His dismissive proposition that "nothing can come from nothing," overlooks the very simple fact that the QED sea of energy is hardly "nothing," otherwise there would be no such thing as Brownian motion or the Casimir Effect, not to mention the space, time, mass, and energy of our universe. Hal Puthoff claims that a cupful of this so called "vacuum energy" could boil away the oceans of our planet. (The most intriguing concept of "zero" is that promulageted by today's heretics such as Tom Bearden.) Presumably, however, Seife's math and philosophical history of zero is accurate. Before reading this book, this reader had known very little of it, and it was this part that he found quite enjoyable.

This is a mildly interesting and entertaining book about history of zero that unfortunately tries to be too cute with its style and to pull in so many unrelated ideas, it loses focus as you turn the pages. When "Zero" stays on topic it's OK. Seife has a pretty good grounding in most of the history, and it was facsinating to read about how the number was used for such simple purpose for Babylonians but became so important for abstract number systems later.

Middle section of the book deals with zero in calculus, useful for any student toughing it out thru intro calc. But Seife gets too drawn in to all the goofy philosophical wanderings you can make about zero, he goes off on way too many tangents that don't make sense. Yes, you can't divide 1 by 0 and the number has a special role in most operations, but how do these properties threaten to bring down the whole framework of math (to paraphrase)? There's all kinds of talk about how zero and infinity are just two sides of the same coin-- why? The author tries to sound like a sage but doesn't make much sense with the claims on these pages.

Whole thing comes apart in the last couple of chapters on physics, cosmology, and applied math which are slim on facts and chock-full of flowery language about how important zero is but where the author really doesn't back his claims. In fact, as the book goes on it seems to make less sense, as though it doesn't quite know what it's supposed to be saying as it moves farther afield from history and calculus. Why are these later chapters even here? They don't add anything and detract from the book's overall value.

A very interesting book. The Author shows how mindsets, philosophies and cultures had to change to enable the Zero to be accepted. The West overlooked then resisted the idea of zero.
When the zero idea took hold and was finally accepted it affected everything from Aristoteloism, to commerce, to Art. Even the biblical creation stories took on a different light.
Art in the West during the Renaissance gained a major improvement
as the sense of perspective was developed. This vanishing point within a painting is the equivalnt of the introduction of Zero into the art world .
I would read other books by this author, interesting history, The book moves right along, I like the Author's style, plenty of background, but always stayed the coure. I believe an audio book
is probably not the correct format for this information. I would have liked to have seen the test portraying some of the
equtions.

The work contains various theories about the number zero.
The study of zero has fascinated thinkers from Ancient Rome to
the Americas. Zero did not fit into the Pythagorean framework.
Saint Augustine defined it as formlessness without definition.
The number has a role in the quadratic formula. The work
contains many possible interpretation of the number zero in
philosophy, mathematics and academe. It is highly recommended
for a wide constiency in academe.

The work is perfect for student projects in mathematics or science. Many popular theories of the number zero are described in great detail.
The study of zero has fascinated thinkers from Ancient Rome to
the Americas. Zero did not fit into the Pythagorean framework.
Saint Augustine defined it as formlessness without definition.
The number has a role in the quadratic formula. The work
contains many possible interpretations of the number zero in
philosophy, mathematics and academe. It is highly recommended
for a wide constituency
of readers. The number zero is popular in arriving at limits
in calculus . It has many uses in linear algebra ; such as,
the zero matrix, row reduction methods in linear programming
and determinant theory. The work could serve as a springboard
for a doctoral dissertation.

I had a frustrating experience reading this book because of the way the author gets the history of Aristotle's teachings and thought in Europe so thoroughly mixed up.

Most of this book is about the history of the number zero and how it wound up in European number systems, which originally lacked it. The writer shows how zero gradually appeared in numeral systems in Asia and the Middle East, then began to crop up in European numbers when Mediterranean merchants in the Middle Ages found it to be useful. He shows how the important advancements of science and calculus in Europe in the 1600's depended on it so much. All true and fair enough.

But it's galling how the book works in the impact of Greek philosophy, which it lays out quite wrong. A theme repeated throughout the book is that medieval Europe was stuck in its anti-intellectual Dark Ages, blocked from the Scientific Revolution, and refusing to accept the zero in mathematics because its intellectual foundation was grounded too much in the thought of Aristotle. This is just plain wrong!

Medieval Europe was stuck in its unproductive doldrums precisely because it had forgotten about and virtually ignored the teachings of Aristotle. Aristotle was the one who had emphasized empirical observation and classification of facts-- the idea that would be at the basis of the scientific method. It was the thought of Plato and some of his colleagues, not Aristotle, that had been dominating Europe in the Middle Ages.

When Aristotle was finally re-introduced into Europe in the late Middle Ages from Middle Eastern scholars-- that's what sparked the changes in ideas that allowed the Renaissance and Age of Reason to take hold in the first place.

And Aristotle was not in any way the whole basis for Europe's lack of a zero in its numbers. There's a lot of citing of Aristotle's "Nature abhors a vacuum" comment here, but this had little to do with Europe consciously rejecting the zero, because there was no conscious rejection to begin with.

The Europeans were just using the Roman numeral system, which had no zero, because that was the custom of the day and people were used to it. Most number systems worldwide didn't have a zero because the various cultures figured they didn't need it-- there was no European "math legislature" that rejected a proposal to add a zero, it's just that nobody thought to add it in.

When the Mediterranean merchants began using the Arabic numerals with the zero, they just found it to be more useful than the Roman numerals, and for that practical reason people switched over. Simple as that.

Maybe Aristotle's "Nature abhors a vacuum" comment is right, since physicists seem to finding all kinds of wild particles and constituents filling up what's been called the vacuum. (The later part of this book explores these areas a little, and doesn't do a good job of it-- it's out of date and disorganized.) I don't know, I'm not an expert in this, but there's probably no easy explanation and the book's tendency to paint Aristotle as a misleading scholar becomes downright irritating.

Maybe I'm just being a picky classics student here, but it's frustrating to read the history of Aristotle in Europe be told so incorrectly. Aristotle's ideas if anything were the most essential ingredient for Europe's ability to wake up out of the Middle Ages and experience an intellectual flowering.