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Wormholes Unstable (BBC)

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-it's-not-like-i-planned-to-build-a-condo-there-anyway dept.

An anonymous reader writes that "The BBC reports on recent theoretical physics research showing that wormholes may not be very useful for space or time travel. Wormholes with smooth or classical spacetimes appear to be unstable and fall apart quickly. Too bad for budding time travelers and space explorers!"

7 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. We knew that by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Either you need the Prophets/wormhole aliens living in the wormhole, or you can only hold the StarGate open for a limited amount of time.

    Elementary sci-fi!

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  2. Well... by catdevnull · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suppose this makes it more like the "improbability" drive now, doesn't it?

    You wouldn't have to be in a wormhole very long to travel somewhere (sometime) else--as long as you're not counting on the return trip.

    --

    I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
  3. The Worm Turns by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If wormholes allow time travel, their brevity is nearly irrelevant.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:The Worm Turns by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If the relationships in metaphors are not symmetrical, their examples are nearly irrelevant.

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      --
      make install -not war

  4. Re:Oh No! by Gilmoure · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's still more miles/gallon than my '70 Impala.

    --
    I drank what? -- Socrates
  5. Now that is funny by Edmund+Blackadder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is great how there is this heated discussion about whether wormholes are or are not safe for space travel (and people are actually disappointed when they turn out to be unsafe) while no-one has ever seen a wormhole to begin with.

  6. Re:You never watched DS9 by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually it wasn't completely unique, just unusual.

    Whenever a wormhole was discovered that seemed stable, the federation jumped in and got trading rights over it (cf. the episode that stranded the ferengi in the delta quadrant after the wormhole was found to be stable only on one side).

    In later Voyager they communicated via a very small wormhole - enough to get a data signal through, but nothing else. IIRC that was artifically created, though.

    There's also the Borg transwarp technology (OK they're subspace corridors, but they sure sound like wormholes to me...).