The idea contained in the literal quote that leads the beginning and which is usually stated in the form "Only atoms and emptiness exist, and everything else is opinion" is due to Democritus, who developed it about 2400 years ago. And although the anachronistic interpretations tend to be more deceptive than enlightening, we can now, at the beginning of the 21st century, attribute to this idea an undeniable visionary character. True, the atoms of Democritus and his master Leucippus were (only) mental constructions, achieved by pure reasoning and not by questioning Nature. Which has no merit to the idea. Neither does it diminish our surprise at the mysterious fact that we can, by pure reasoning - now transmuted into our confidence in mathematics - discover something that seems to exist in external reality, independently of us.

And the question is even more intriguing because Democritus is not limited to atoms, but adds a second element, the void, an idea that in other doctrines - like the Aristotelian - declared itself to be abhorred by Nature. We now have two centuries of familiarity with the modern atomic idea and a century after its verification and quite detailed knowledge, so we do not have much difficulty in giving an 'emergency' answer to the question what are atoms?

But answer the question what is emptiness? It is far from immediate. On the one hand, the emptiness resembles nothingness, and on the other, it opposes the "full" and the "everything", in a multiple counterpoint that gives rise to a variety of possible interpretations. And that emptiness is a bubbling sea of ​​nothingness, full of noise and fury, and that means a lot, is a much more modern idea, whose prehistory is now 66 years old, and which has not yet penetrated our collective collection.