The Nothing That Is: A Natural History Of Zero

Forced into our awareness 2500 years ago by the need to count ever-larger multitudes, zero began its career as two wedges pushed into a wet lump of Sumerian clay. However, the subsequent history of the notion 'nothing' and its mathematical representative was far from straightforward. Zero disappeared for centuries, then swept from the East into the medieval world with fears and superstitions crouched around it. Was it the devil's work? Did we discover or invent it? Is it a number or a fiction? Its users came to see that it held immense power to unriddle the universe. 'A true delight' - Roger Penrose 'Entertaining, informative, brilliantly done' - Martin Gardner