Imagine going out to the deepest, emptiest place in the universe, achieving a perfect, total vacuum. Would you be surrounded by emptiness? The answer to that question is much subtler than you might realize.
The modern journey into the vacuum began in the 17th century, with a flashy experiment designed by Otto von Guericke, mayor of the town of Magdeburg in the Holy Roman Empire. As part of a political stunt to show that his city had rebounded after the ravages of the 30 Years' War, von Guericke put on a demonstration for the emperor and other notables to show off his newly invented vacuum pump. By placing two hemispheres together and pumping out all of the air, Otto showed that not even a team of horses could pull the hemispheres apart.
