Could the universe have appeared out of nothing? In a previous video, we argued that typical notions of 'something' and 'nothing' don't really make sense according to modern physics. But many commenters objected to this idea, calling it a semantic game. Surely there must be such a thing as a true void: no matter, no energy, no distance... just pure nothingness.

 

In our latest animated explainer, we pick up where we left off and look at whether true nothingness is possible according to physics. If you emptied the universe of all its contents, would you get a pure void? Famous physicists have tackled the idea of empty space over time, but these ideas have now been overturned by quantum theory.