The universe is not so much strange as brimming with lovely paradox. At least, that is what seems like as one strolls through the long and winding road of twentieth century Physics. Twentieth century physics has demonstrated the existence of a topsy-turvy reality: for instance, that such sub-atomic particles as quarks and gluons, which have little or no mass, orchestrate themselves into not just protons and neutrons but ultimately to the entire universe. You may well ask: how is it possible to construct heavy objects out of objects that weigh nothing? It is by creating mass out of pure energy.

These particles are essentially excitations in otherwise empty space. The masses of particles are the tones or frequencies of vibration patterns in a dynamical void.

You, dear reader, want to know the meaning of this dynamical void. I will let Frank Wilzcek, the 2004 Nobel laureate in Physics speak on the issue::

'According to quantum field theory, what appears to us as empty space is in reality a wildly dynamical medium with short-lived virtual particles created as a consequence of an uncertainty in energy and time interacting with real particles. The different particles we observe correspond to different vibration patterns in this dynamical void, and stable particles are just  vibration patterns that have a particularly long lifetime. Furthermore, expressing energy in terms of frequency generates a unique mapping between a mass and an associated frequency. This suggests the masses of particles are the tones, the frequencies of these vibration patterns in the dynamical void. There's a music of the void in the table of particle masses.'

So this entire universe is a product of this void or nothing! Everything seems to have come from nothing --- this seems to be the ultimate paradox. This raises an important question. Why is there something and not nothing? Wilzcek  has an answer to that question. He says that nothing is unstable compared to something!

So let me sum up the picture created by modern science regarding the existence of the universe. This universe is created out of particles that weigh almost nothing. These particle in turn are merely excitations in empty space and so can be thought of as excitations of nothing!

There is something and not nothing because nothing is unstable! Suddenly nothing is not just raining down on us but positively pouring.

What do I think about this nothing? I think this nothing has to be everything! Otherwise it makes no sense. Twentieth century Physics has reached this paradox because it has ignored Consciousness which is this everything that has given rise to this universe. It is also clear that Physics has reached almost the end of the road since this consciousness (nothing or everything) can not be subjected to mathematical or experimental probes.