Can you record true silence?

a.) Is there a way to record true 'silence'? 
b.) If you played the recorded silence back and you turned up the volume, would it do anything/would you hear anything from the recording or would it have no effect? 

It is nearly impossible to find a state of true silence [3]. But some people go out of their way to find it [3]. In 2012, a group of scientists led by Davyd Betchkal attempted to trudge deep into the woods in an attempt to record 60 days' worth of pure silence, or more accurately, natural sound [3]. The team sought a quiet undisturbed by the chafing of nylon snow pants, the crunch of snow underfoot, or even plane engines miles away [3]. They wanted a silence so pure that it proved quite elusive [3]. By the time the article was published six years later, the team had amassed a mere 36 days worth of silent recordings [3].
There is always some sound when you record anything, no matter how much silence you are trying to capture [1]. The sound on the recording is usually enough to cover up any weird sounds from the narrator [2]. However, if you are looking to record true silence, it is not possible in any environment other than outer space [1]. The reason for this is that even when there is complete silence, there is still a slight sound associated with it [2]. This sound is known as "room tone" or the "noise floor" [2]. It is important to record room tone, as it can help fix audio problems in postproduction, and it sounds much better than silence would [2].