Comment 5 by Schrodinger's Cat :

Getting something from nothing is one of the great developments in physics in the last century

I'd say it's been surpassed by the sheer ability to use the word 'nothing' on an almost daily basis to describe something which, on closer inspection, isn't actually nothing. Why do physicists keep doing this ? No.....a vacuum fluctuation is not 'nothing' in the sense that 99% of the rest of humanity would define nothing.

Can physicists please finally invent a word other than 'nothing' to describe this....er.....nothing.

My philosophy professor from college would state (as he did), that it is a "relative" nothing. The question then remains as to whether or not there can be any nothing other than a relative nothing. In other words, is it possible for there to be absolutely nothing?

My vote is no, but I'm just a UNIX monkey.