Art+Science

Biology + Beyond

Cosmos

Culture

Earth

Life

Mind

Ocean

One Question

Quanta Abstractions

Rewilding

Science at the Ballot Box

Science Philanthropy Alliance

Spark of Science

The Kinship Issue

The Porthole

The Reality Issue

The Rebel Issue

Women in Science & Engineering

Join

Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. or Join now .

Nothingness

By Peter DuCharme
February 15, 2015

science and culture for people who love beautiful writing.

Nothingness is a category that stands apart from all others, defying description and tracing the boundaries of our knowledge. Forever trying to banish it and explain it away, we are also endlessly fascinated with it. From virtual particles filling the vacuum, to the invention of zero, to Sartre’s claim that nothingness lies at the heart of being, we’ve been thinking about nothingness for a while.

Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now .

Get the Nautilus newsletter

Cutting-edge science, unraveled by the very brightest living thinkers.

Communication

The Sean Carrolls Explain the Universe

Arts

Finding Beauty in the Struggle Between Light and Darkness

Evolution

We Are Light-Eaters

An Earthy Fallen Star
- By Liz Lindqwister
- July 29, 2024
- Environment
The strange mushroom that puffs life into forests around the world.
Inside an Exploded Star
- By Kristen French
- February 22, 2024
- Astronomy
Cassiopeia A gets a close-up.
Automatic for the Oceans
- By Brian Gallagher
- June 30, 2022
- General
A rock trio on the rise is raising environmental awareness.
Join Nautilus Live—Get the Truth About Sun Exposure
- By Nautilus Editors
- June 5, 2014
- General
Join us at noon on Monday, June 9, when editor in chief Michael Segal will host a live video chat with award-winning journalist and NYU professor, Jessica Seigel about her latest Nautilus piece, “America Is Getting the Science of Sun Exposure Wrong.” Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . There […]
Forest for the Trees—Why We Recognize Faces & Constellations
- By Robert X.D. Hawkins
- May 19, 2014
- General
A Ganado-style Navajo rugNational Park Service Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . For many thousands of years, and across cultures around the world, symmetry has been seen as beautiful. The mirror-image accuracy of the Parthenon is seen also in the Taj Mahal and the geometric patterns of traditional Navajo […]