From Dave Howells
I found your articles on nothing interesting but dismaying (13 November, p 40). Strictly speaking, none of them was about nothing. They surveyed the mathematical zero, empty sets, electronics, the quantum vacuum and the noble gases.
Nothing, I believe, is when we are unconscious. Say I have an operation under general anaesthetic, I count down from 10, reach seven, and then wake up to discover that I am in a different place. What happened in between? For my conscious awareness, absolutely nothing – no time, no space, no matter, no emptiness, no experience whatsoever.
The editor writes:
• Nothing comes to those who wait: see our recent feature on anaesthesia and consciousness (26 November, p 48).
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Swansea, UK
