From the zeros of the mathematician to the void of the philosophers, from Shakespeare to the empty set, from the ether to the quantum, from being and nothingness to creatio ex nihilo, there is much ado about nothing at the heart of things. Recent discoveries in astronomy are shedding new light on the nature of the vacuum and its dramatic effect upon the explanation of the Universe. This book ranges over every nook and cranny of nothingness to reveal how the human mind has to make something of nothing in every field of human enquiry.