Threads creation in C

void print_hello_world() {
    pid_t pid = getpid();
    printf("Hello world %d\n", pid);
    pthread_exit(0);
}

void main() {
    pthread_t thread;
    pthread_create(&thread, NULL, (void *) &print_hello_world, NULL);
    print_hello_world();
}

I really couldn't understand what is the need of (void *) in pthread_create. And do we need "&print_hello_world" in the same or could drop "&" as I have read somewhere that while passing function pointers we don't need to place "&" before the function name.

via Chebli Mohamed