Text: I didnšt quite understand the principle of zero-point energy on the show. Can you please give me a simple explanation of the basic theory or point me the direction where I could read about it on the web or a recent publication? Steven Weinberg answers: Electric and magnetic fields and other fields are subject to a version of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle: it is not possible to have a state in which a field, and the rate at which it is changing, both vanish. Consequently empty space, even far from any matter, is permeated with continually fluctuating fields. The effects of these fields are very weak under ordinary circumstances, but they can be measured -- for instance, by observing a force between parallel metal plates due to the change produced by these plates in the fluctuating electric and magnetic fields in the space between the plates. This is known as the Casimir effect, and has been studied experimentally and theoretically for many years.

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