Some claim it created the universe. Sartre argued it was central to our being. Yet Nothingness turns out to be strangely elusive. Scientists can’t find it or describe it. Bertrand Russell argued it was a logical mistake. Is Nothing an illusion, a fictitious error? Or is it a vital key to our understanding of the universe and who we are?

In this issue of IAI News, philosopher James Ladyman questions what it really means for things to exist. We think information provides facts about the universe. But, in Coding the Universe, Ladyman asks: what exactly is information and how does it relate to matter?