Wormholes? Maybe.

A number of people have e-mailed with the BBC's coverage of the some "new theories" from a Russian scientist that have been unveiled in New Scientist magazine. The theories have been met with some skepticism by the scientific community, so don't go planning your vacation to Alpha Centauri quite yet.

Comments

Original article pointer

[ckd]

The original New Scientist article is online, as is the full paper which has much more content.

This is interesting, but even if it turns out that they can be found (or built), there may be problems. If they can be moved, you can turn one into a time machine (giving causality the finger) by accelerating one end to relativistic speeds and taking it on a trip, as noted in the actual paper (but ignored by both the New Scientist and BBC articles).

A reasonable SF treatment of this particular idea is in Robert Forward's Timemaster. The characters make cardboard look 3D, and the prose isn't the most beautiful, but the main hook is the physics speculation--and Forward does that quite well.

Re:Build a wormhole?

[Anonymous Coward]

to "build" a theoretical wormhole you would first have to sustain a fusion process and make it grow large enough that it cant sustain its own mass. then you would have an ultra dense mass with such incredible gravity that it would collapse in on itself thus creating a rip in space time. thats assuming you start from scratch, otherwise you can compress an already existing mass in on itself, for example its estimated that if you compressed the earth into a sphere .7inches in diameter that it would create a tear in space time.

thats what 8 years of working as an astrophysicist will do to you :)

even a tiny wormhole is useful

[Frederic54]

for communication! if the wormhole is atomic-size, photons that are smaller than an atom, can pass thru the wormhole. We know how to make coherent light (laser), just aim right at the center of the wormhole (once one is discovered) and the laser will reappear at the other side. Using a "blinking" laser we could use some kind of morse to communicate with someone on the other side of the wormhole.
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Creating negative energy

[wowbagger]

Creating negative energy is simple: the average management meeting has more than enough to create a wormhole to Hell. I know. I go through one twice a week. Sometimes more.

My hair is pointing, Dave. I can feel it....