Does what we conceive of as “nothing” even exist? According to quantum field theory—which is thought to be the most successful theory in all of physics for its ability to predict results of all kinds of experiments with extreme precision—there is no such thing as a true void in our universe. Even the biggest “nothing” of all, the void of space, is something: a vacuum. And within a vacuum, much more is happening than meets the eye.
Without matter or radiation, space is a vacuum with the potential to be anything. In fact, if we recast “nothingness” as a vacuum filled with zero-point energy—the baseline energy that fills all of space, according to quantum mechanics—you could say nothing is the reason why you and I exist in the first place. Some scientists even believe this nothingness is a substrate your brain attaches to in order to “receive” consciousness.
Quantum field theory says that we don’t live in a universe where matter floats around in empty space. Instead, we live in a universe of energy fields that spread throughout the universe and interact with one another, creating everything we see in the process; in fact, we are part of these fields. In describing them, some physicists refer to these fields as being fluid-like, like water in a swimming pool. Others have compared them to a field of heat distributed throughout a room with different levels of energy at different points.
The fields are constantly moving due to quantum fluctuations, which are momentary changes in energy, like ripples of energy in a wave, when something excites the particles in the field. An electromagnet, for example, might cause a change of energy in an electromagnetic field. The fields’ lowest energy state, the vacuum state, still teems with movement, because pairs of positive and negative particles continually borrow energy from the vacuum, pop into existence, and pop out of existence again, returning energy to the vacuum. These are known as “virtual particles.”
When the field is excited or reaches a higher energy point, it has ripples or waves that create elementary particles that are not canceled out. It is these particles that remain, interacting with one another, that creates the world we know.
The kind of particle the field creates depends on the kind of field it is. There are 12 fields of matter that produce electrons, up quarks, and down quarks—the building blocks of all atoms—and neutrinos. There are also three fields of force: electromagnetism with its particles, the photons; the strong nuclear force with its gluons; and the weak nuclear force with its W and Z bosons. As Cambridge theoretical physicist David Tong says, if it wasn’t for fields of force, the matter particles “would just wander around the universe like lost souls, never interacting, never doing anything interesting.”
Then there’s the Higgs field, which Tong compares to molasses, spread throughout the universe, giving other particles mass so that they don’t just zip around at the speed of light; though he admits that’s a faulty metaphor because it implies friction. In reality, different particles just interact differently with the Higgs field.
All the fields exist everywhere, but they all interact differently, with some particles completely ignoring each other, and some particles impacting each other and creating reactions.
Working together, these fields represent all that we know and can see, as well as a lot that we don’t know and can’t see. But, weirdly, the creation of particles that make something is the exception. An atom, for example, happens when there is enough energy in the quark fields to create quarks that don’t get canceled out by anti-matter quarks (though no one is sure why). Gluons, the particles of the strong force, connect with two up quarks and one down quark to create a proton. The gluons then connect protons with neutrons to form a nucleus.
Physicists believe that all of the visible universe is the leftovers, the one particle per billion that managed to survive virtual particles’ creation/destruction process.
But just because the universe is full of virtual particles, that doesn’t fully negate the idea of nothing. First of all, there’s the nothing before the Big Bang; we don’t know what that was. Also, we don’t understand the nature of this nothing—the vast fields of quantum energy—that seem like something that leaves a combination of ingredients, matter and force, to create a world. Physicists don’t know why, after the Big Bang, any elemental particles survived. In his book, A Universe from Nothing, theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss implied that the answer was in the evidence. The unstable nature of nothing gives rise to elementary particles. Period. End of debate.
“The question why is there something rather than nothing is really a scientific question, not a religious or philosophical question,” Krauss said in an interview on NPR.
There is no provable answer right now: none, zip, nothing. Fortunately for philosophers and physicists, that’s where some of the best answers are found.
February / March 2026
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Featuring:
➡ Archaeologists Found a Skeleton Wearing a Silver Amulet. The Discovery Is Rewriting the History of Christianity.
➡ The Stray Dogs of Chernobyl Are Rapidly Mutating. Scientists Are Still Trying to Figure Out What It Means.
➡ New Evidence Could Upend What We Know About the Charles Lindbergh Baby Murder
➡ Police Found Mysterious Notes in a Dead Man's Pocket. They Turned Out to Be Codes That Not Even the FBI Can Break.
December 2025 / January 2026
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Featuring:
➡ An Angel of Death Preyed on Hospital Patients for Years.
➡ How America's Most Advanced Lab Brought the Killer to Justice.
➡ A 3,000-Ton Locomotive Was Loose, Unstoppable, and Filled With Toxic Cargo
➡ An Underwater Cave Promised Adventure and Glory. No One Expected It to Become a Tomb.
➡ Your Consciousness Can Predict the Future, Some Scientists Say
October / November 2025
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Featuring:
➡ Inside the Secret Island Where Death Is Optional
➡ A Legendary Ship Sank Without Warning. Fifty Years Later, Science Could Finally Solve the Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
➡ This Tech Rebel Threw Away $900 Million in a Municipal Dump. Can Robots Find His Lost Fortune?
➡ Sex Workers, LSD, and Mind Control: What Happened in the CIA's Lab of Nightmares at 225 Chestnut Street
August / September 2025
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Featuring:
➡ The Worst Air Disaster in American History Happened in Broad Daylight. Will More Mistakes Keep Happening?
➡ NASA Has a Plan to Save Earth from Planet-Destroying Asteroids. It Sounds Even Wilder than Science Fiction.
➡ A Naval Officer Says Underwater UFOs Are Legitimate Threats. The Evidence Is Hard to Ignore.
➡ When You Die, a Psychedelic Molecule Shapes Your Final Moments of Consciousness, a New Theory Reveals.
June/July 2025
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Featuring:
➡ This Undersea Explorer Found America's Greatest Sunken Treasure. Then Things Got Really Weird.
➡ Is Bigfoot Hiding in the Swamps of Florida? This Group Says It Has Proof.
➡ Scientists May Have Gotten the Global-Warming Timeline Seriously Wrong.
➡ A Third State Now Exists Between Life and Death, Some Scientists Now Believe
April/May 2025
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Featuring:
➡ Scientists Successfully Revive a Dead Brain, Redefining the Boundary Between Life and Death
➡ Fingerprints Keep Leading to Wrongful Convictions. Why Do Courts Still Rely on Them?
➡ For 80 Years, the North Sea Held a Deadly Killer. Now Scientists Are Racing to Defuse the Threat.
➡ They Built the Quietest Room in the World. Why Is Everyone So Afraid to Step Inside It?
February/March 2025
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Featuring:
➡ This Guy Says He Knows the Truth About UFOs. Should We Believe Him?
➡ Scientists Are Now One Step Away From Solving Nuclear Fusion—And Unlocking Unlimited Energy.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
December/January 2025
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It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ A Clue Hidden in a 400-Year-Old Map Might Have Just Solved One of America's Greatest Mysteries
➡ Inside the Deranged Plot to Smuggle Cocaine With an Armed Soviet-Era Submarine
➡ This Brilliant Engineer Helped Build the B2 Bomber—Then He Sold America's Stealth Secrets to China
➡ Your Consciousness Can Connect With the Whole Universe
October/November 2024
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It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡Untold Secrets Reveal How the Castle Bravo Test Became America’s Worst Nuclear Disaster
➡ This Body Was Found Preserved on a Block of Ice in a Colorado Shed. It Had Been There for 30 Years.
➡ It Was Supposed to Be America's Greatest Victory in Space—Then It Became NASA’s Worst Nightmare
➡ The Sidewinder Missile Ruled the Air—Then the Soviets Stole the Design
August/September 2024
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Featuring:
➡This Man Knows the Truth About Amelia Earhart. Why Doesn't Anyone Believe Him?
➡ The Army's Machine Gun Is No Match for Cheap Chinese Body Armor. So It's Making a New One.
➡ Russia Built a Stunning Rival to the Supersonic Concorde—and Then It Fell From the Sky
➡ A Navy Admiral Says Underwater UFOs Are a Threat—and the Pentagon is Withholding Secrets
June / July 2024
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Featuring:
➡4 Black Eggs Have Surfaced From the Depths of the Ocean— and the Mysterious Creatures Inside Are Baffling Science
➡ A $2 Million Treasure Appeared in a Kentucky Cornfield. No One Knows Where It Came From.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
April May / 2024
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Featuring:
➡The Man Who Knows Too Much About Area 51
➡ How the FBI Took Down the Internet's Most Dangerous Website
➡ A Staggering New Clue Emerges in the D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery
➡ The Wildest Prison Break in U.S. History
➡ The Secret to a Perfect Lawn Lies in One of These 10 Electric Lawnmowers
February / March 2024
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Featuring:
➡The Incredible Mystery of NASA’s Missing Moondust
➡ Inside the Final Fiery Minutes of the East Palestine Train Wreck
➡ Scientists Believe They’ve Unlocked Consciousness—and It Connects to the Entire Universe
➡ Why This Unstoppable Stealth Bomber Will Rule the Skies
➡ America Is Developing a New Nuclear Bomb—But Can’t Test Whether It Works
➡ The 8 Best, Expert-Recommended Solar-Powered Generators
Special Issue: Nukes
➡ How Deadly Nuclear Waste Is Menacing This St. Louis Neighborhood
➡ The Terrifying History of Russia's Nuclear Submarine Graveyard
➡ Strange Mutations in Stray Dogs Near Chernobyl Suggest They Are Rapidly Evolving
➡ America Dumped 56 Million Gallons of Radioactive Material Along the Columbia River—Then It Started to Leak
December 2023 / January 2024
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Featuring:
➡ A New Clue In Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Emerges From the Ocean
➡ How an Alleged Water Bandit Stole $25 Million in Water from Thirsty California Farms
➡ A Coal Mine Exploded and 300 Miners Died. What Went Wrong?
➡ China Just Built a Terrifying New Aircraft Carrier and May Soon Dominate the Seas
October / November 2023
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Featuring:
➡ How Rats Took Over Our Cities—And Why We Can't Stop Them
➡ This Language Is on the Verge of Extinction. Can It Be Saved?
➡ America's Deadliest Warplane Returns in a New Doomsday Role
➡ This Amateur Diving Group Kept Solving Cold Cases. Then Its Own Skeletons Surfaced.
➡ The Scientific Breakthrough That Could Put an End to Gray Hair.
August/September 2023
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Featuring:
➡ Immortality Is in Reach. But It’s Not What We Imagined.
➡ Your Next iPhone (and Nuclear Subs) Will Be Powered By Space Metal
➡Scientists Now Think We Can Build a Warp Drive
➡ China and Russia Have Cracked the Stealth Code. Can the U.S. Regain Air Dominance?
June/July 2023
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Featuring:
➡ The CIA’s Secret Plan to Build a Laser Beam Powered by the Human Mind
➡ The 747 Ruled the Skies—Then One Slammed Into a Mountain
➡The Race to Contain AI Before Singularity
➡ These Florida Homes Aren’t Just Hurricane-Proof—They’re Blueprints for the Future
April/May 2023
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Featuring:
➡ AI Is on the Cusp of Taking Control—This Is How It May All Go Wrong
➡ There’s No Weapon Russia Fears More Than the HIMARS Rocket Launcher
➡The Nuclear-Submarine Arms Race Is Getting Intense, and the U.S. Just Took a Massive Leap Forward
➡ Iran Is Becoming a Drone Superpower—By Stealing American Technology
February/March 2023
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Featuring:
➡ The Greatest Treasure Hunt in American History Ended—and Then Things Got Weird
➡ These Are the High-Powered Weapons Ukraine Needs to Send Russia Running
➡ The Secret War to Take Out Iran’s Fleet of F-14 Jets
➡ Russia Is Trying to Intimidate the U.S. with Hypersonic Missiles and Big, Scary Nukes—And It's More Than a Threat
December 2022/January 2023
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Featuring:
➡ Is Death Real?
➡ China and Russia Are Dominating the Hypersonic Arms Race—And It’s Not Even Close
➡ When the South Fork Dam Broke, a Pennsylvania City Washed Away. Which Town Is Next?
➡ The Navy’s New $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Is Already Obsolete. This Weapon Can Save It.
October/November 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Can America's M1 Abrams Still Compete With China's and Russia's Latest Battle Tanks?
��� Inside the Final Minutes of the Concorde Disaster—and How It Doomed Supersonic Travel for Decades
➡ How the Massive Cargo Ship Felicity Ace Sank, Taking $400 Million Worth of Exotic Supercars With It
➡ I Turned My Old Gas-Guzzler Into a Zippy EV for $15,000
August/September 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Cosmic Secrets of the 17 Most Powerful Mega-Telescopes on Earth—and Beyond
➡ Can the Air Force's Secret, Hypersonic Jet Reclaim the Skies From Russia and China?
➡ For 50 Years, the Zodiac Killer's 340 Cipher Stumped the FBI—Then Three Amateurs Cracked the Code
➡ America's Most Fearsome Howitzer Has Entered the War in Ukraine
June/July 2022
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Featuring:
➡ Every Single Drone Fighting in the Skies Over Ukraine
➡ How to Buy a New Car in 2022 Without Getting Fleeced
➡ This Megastructure Could Keep Us Alive Forever
➡ The Race to Revolutionize EV Batteries
Susan Lahey is a journalist and writer whose work has been published in numerous places in the U.S. and Europe. She's covered ocean wave energy and digital transformation; sustainable building and disaster recovery; healthcare in Burkina Faso and antibody design in Austin; the soul of AI and the inspiration of a Tewa sculptor working from a hogan near the foot of Taos Mountain. She lives in Porto, Portugal with a view of the sea.
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