How something can come from nothing.

[Lethe]

I actually found a rather interesting video addressing this subject:



19:00 - 20:30 addresses the issue most succinctly. If you don't feel like waiting for the video to load:

"If you take empty space, and that means get rid of all the particles, all the radiation, absolutely everything, so there's nothing there, if that nothing weighs something, then it contributes a term like [Einstein's equation]. Now, that sounds ridiculous. Why should nothing weigh something? Nothing is nothing. And the answer is nothing isn't nothing anymore, in physics. Because of the laws of quantum mechanics and special relativity, on extremely small scales, nothing is really a boiling bubbling brew of virtual particles that are popping in and out of existence in a time scale so short you can't see them."

My mind has been boggled.