Zero is the story of the number, the time that elapsed before its acceptance, and how the ideas behind it (the void and its opposite, infinity) shook the ideals of religion and science across the globe. The book advances through time chronologically, from the Greek philosophers through Renaissance paintings through Einstein's relativity, ending with speculations on string theory. And yes, all of this is fantasia on the theme of the number zero.I didn't expect this book to be so math-heavy and sort of resented the reintroduction to the Rule of L'Hopital. But overall I found this to be an enjoyable read. My favorite parts were the discoveries of the old Greek musicians and the artists who moonlighted as math dudes. The first section of the book reminded me of that one Donald Duck cartoon [(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_i...)].In my opinion, the ideal audience for this book is kids who are just about to take calculus, because Zero makes the math is both applicable and fun. But also an interesting read for adults. Just be warned that part of this book involves a journey back to high school math equations.

0 + ( It's a book about math. And I read it. ) - ( It took me nine months. )= 0For three weeks after I finished Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, its central figure looked out ominously at me. In that way, Charles Seife was entirely successful in this piece of pop-nonfiction, weaving together the creation of the "zero", its role in history of mathematical theory, its religious controversies, its philosophical significance and ultimately, its true place at the heart of the universe. It's to Seife's credit that he manages to weave out of these eclectic approaches a coherent story that borders at times upon the epic... while never being too important not to include an irreverent tangent about Pythagoras's acute dislike of beans.If anything, Seife trends too sprightly at times. Though I admire his stance in neither dumbing down the material nor making it intimidating for the casual reader, at some point, no matter how breezily one explains black holes or the Casimir effect- there's no disguising that there are some vast concepts being covered. As it is, I believe you definitely have to at least of heard of some of these ideas (particularly in the last third) to enjoy the new contexts he weaves for them in his narrative. Myself, I sort of managed alright with some first year Calculus and Physics schooling. I can't say I ever turned down the chance for more trivia, and Zero delivered in spades. Also, know this: the first appendix details a mathematical proof on why Winston Churchill is a carrot. Rating: 4 stars

An intriguing topic but not a particularly well-told story. The author clearly believes that zero and infinity are somehow dangerous and mystical, and I guess there's some evidence that mathematical philosophers have felt the same way over time. But for the most part, the general vibe of this book was, "Ooh, zero, how *mysterious*," and I wasn't really into that.

4.25/5 stars"Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife is more than just a math book; it's a history of zero and infinity, which the author constantly reminds readers of their resemblances from their birth, the controversial, and the indecisiveness of mathematicians, scientists, philosopher and theologians.To theologians who unquestionably accepted Aristotlean concepts of nature, God or gods created the integers and fractions that appear in our everyday life from the golden ratio, pi, e, harmonic sequences, etc. So, when the concept of zero and infinity appeared, it didn't make any sense to them because God or gods are something, which mean nothing is nothing nor infinite; therefore they, the theologians, discouraged the usage of the concepts of zero and infinity, preventing them from reaching other scholars.To many generations of mathematicians since the ancient Greece, they had been struggled to solve Zeno's paradoxes, which involve the concept of infinity, for many century until they realized that they could avoid the problem of infinity because there wasn't just one kind of infinity, but many: some divergence and some convergence. However, zero appeared once again in limit as zero decided by zero. Rather than ignoring the problem, they embraced zero and infinity as we learn in calculus, especially integration: the method of adding infinite zeroes to reach a finite number.To physicists, astrophysicists and cosmologists, concept of zero and/or infinity appeared in thermodynamics, ultraviolet catastrophe, black hole, expending universe and the Big Bang. However, their fates are not like that of mathematicians. Physicists won't be able to reach absolute zero no matter how modern their technology will become: astrophysicists still have no clue what is happening inside black hole's singularity where enormous mass is embedded in an unimaginably small point in space, cosmologists [and theoretical physicists] still haven't found the theory of everything, whose goal is to combine Einstein's general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics. Without such theory, we would not be able to understand what happened at the instant of the Big Bang, the origin of our Universe and in the singularity of black hole.I find this book surprisingly fascinating as I ventured into it expecting less than what it would give me. "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea," is not only recommended to those who like maths, but also those who don't since one does not need to like math in order to enjoy reading it because the book provides you much more than just boring math equations that you always avoided in school.More book reviews at: https://menglongstarstuff.wordpress.com :')

You have to love a book that has a section giving instructions on how to build your own wormhole-time machine. All you need to do is build a wormhole and attach one end of it to something very heavy and attach the other end to something travelling at 90% of the speed of light. It gets easier from there, although you do have to wait forty six years and haul the thing to another planet. The author takes a seemingly simple topic, then tells us how incredibly complex it really is, and then simplifies it again. Yes, there are pages of equations, some of which I actually understood. But it was a fun read, and he shows how the infinite can be unimaginably large or infinitely small, and how they need each other. The author tells us how this mathematical debate becomes one with the religious debate about the nature of God, and whether He has limits. We see how the ancients Greeks took their debates seriously indeed, and the price of having an unpopular opinion was far worse that getting hateful text messages. Seife tells us about that ancient riddle, about some creature walking one half the distance to a certain point, one jaunt at a time, and in theory can never reach the end, and shows us the single flaw in that argument. Otherwise, we could never get anywhere. As I said, this is a very entertaining book, and the equations shouldn't stop the curious reader.