'Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn,' by Amanda Gefter - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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It all began when Warren Gefter, a radiologist “prone to posing Zen-koan-like questions,” asked his 15-year-old daughter, Amanda, over dinner at a Chinese restaurant near their home just outside Philadelphia: “How would you define nothing?”
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“I think we should figure it out,” he said. And his teenage daughter — sullen, rebellious, wallowing in existential dread — smiled for the first time “in what felt like years.” The project proved to be a gift from a wise, insightful father. It was Warren Gefter’s way of rescuing his child.
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Tracking down the meaning of nothing — and, by extension, secrets about the origin of the universe and whether observer-independent reality exists — became the defining project of their lives. They spent hours together working on the puzzle, two dark heads bent over their physics books far into the night.
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