000			01966cam a2200277 a 4500
999			_c3076 _d3076
001			015566247
003			UkOxU
005			20231002110743.0
008			030314r20032000enka 001 0 eng d
015			_aGB A3-21990
020			_a0285635948
020			_a9780285635944
035			_aBNB2739.1506
040			_aAB/N-1 _cKH8
082	0		_a513 SEI _221
100	1		_aSeife, Charles, _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aZero : _bthe biography of a dangerous idea / _cCharles Seife ; drawings by Matt Zimet.
260			_aLondon : _bSouvenir, _c2003.
300			_a248 p. : _bill. ; _c22 cm.
500			_aOriginally published: 2000.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aThe Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Now it threatens the foundations of modern physics. For centuries the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. For zero, infinity's twin, is not like other numbers. It is both nothing and everything. In Zero, Science Journalist Charles Seife follows this innocent-looking number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its rise and transcendence in the West, and its ever-present threat to modern physics. Here are the legendary thinkers—from Pythagoras to Newton to Heisenberg, from the Kabalists to today's astrophysicists—who have tried to understand it and whose clashes shook the foundations of philosophy, science, mathematics, and religion. Zero has pitted East against West and faith against reason, and its intransigence persists in the dark core of a black hole and the brilliant flash of the Big Bang. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time: the quest for a theory of everything.
650		0	_aZero (The number)
700	1		_aZimet, Matt.
942			_2ddc _cTR