Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

[MJ, Idiot's Top libriarian]

Zero is a number that is taken advantage of by modern society but this was not always the case. Never before has 1 number frightened and baffled so many.

Charles Seife said it best in the intorduduction of this book. "This is the story of zero, from its birth in ancient times to its growth and nourishment in the East, its struggle for acceptance in Europe, its ascendance in the West, and its ever present threat to modern physics. It is the story of the people scholars and mystics, the scientists and clergyman-who each tries to understand zero. It is the story of the Western world's attempts to shield itself unsuccessfully (and sometimes violently) from and Eastern idea. And it is a history of the paradoxes posed by an innocent-looking number, rattling even this century's brightest minds and threatening to unravel the whole framework of scientific thought."