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One Theory Beyond the Standard Model Could Allow Wormholes that You Could Actually Fly Through
Wormholes are a popular feature in science fiction, the means through which spacecraft can achieve faster-than-light (FTL) travel and instantaneously move from one point in spacetime to another.
And while the General Theory of Relativity forbids the existence of "traversable wormholes", recent research has shown that they are actually possible within the domain of quantum physics.
The only downsides are that they would actually take longer to traverse than normal space and/or likely be microscopic.
In a new study performed by a pair of Ivy League scientists, the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model could mean that there are wormholes out there that are not only large enough to be traversable, but entirely safe for human travelers looking to get from point A to point B.
The study, titled "Humanly traversable wormholes," was conducted by Juan Maldacena (the Carl P. Feinberg Professor of theoretical physics from the Institute of Advanced Study) and Alexey Milekhin, a graduate of astrophysics student at Princeton University. The pair have written extensively on the subject of wormholes in the past and how they could be a means for traveling safely through space.
[...] However, Maldacena and Milekhin emphasize that their study was conducted for the purpose of showing that traversable wormholes can exist as a result of the "subtle interplay between general relativity and quantum physics."
In short, wormholes are not likely to become a practical way to travel through space – at least, not in any way that's foreseeable. Perhaps they would not be beyond a Kardashev[*] Type II or Type III civilization, but that's just speculation. Even so, knowing that a major element in science fiction is not beyond the realm of possibility is certainly encouraging!
Preprint Reference:
Juan Maldacena and Alexey Milekhin, Humanly traversable wormholes, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.06618.pdf
[*] Kardashev Scale
(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday August 31 2020, @08:43PM (3 children)
Columbus had a map made by Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli [wikipedia.org] showing the location of a large land mass West of Europe. Which was thought to be Asia.
Also Europeans had already made it to North America almost 500 years earlier. Lief Eriksons's voyage to what he called Vineland, around 1000CE, and even Lief's trip was based on earlier information from Bjarni [wikipedia.org] who reported seeing a large land mass West of Greenland in 986CE though Bjami did not make land fall.
While they weren't from Europe there are also claims that the Olmec civilization in Central/South America may have been started, or at least strongly influenced by, travelers from China around 1200BCE.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 31 2020, @11:44PM (2 children)
Thus: no Southern European.
Doesn't sound too reliable to me. Was Toscanelli's map based on the writings of Strabo the Greek (1st Century BC/AD)? The Greeks, believing in a round earth, may well have made a map showing Asia lying to the West, because, well - round earth and all - you're sure to get there eventually. This would be similar to advice in the Kirk Star Trek Universe to seek God by slingshotting around a black hole to travel back to the beginning of time.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Tuesday September 01 2020, @04:38AM (1 child)
"Believed" nothing! The Greeks had already measured the circumference of the Earth to within a few percent of its actual size, and educated Europeans were well aware of that, Columbus's "brilliance" wasn't realizing that the world was round, but that he believed it to be about half the commonly accepted diameter, so that Asia could be reached by sailing west, rather than such a voyage being impossibly long and dooming everyone to death at sea, which would have been the outcome if the if the Americas hadn't unexpectedly gotten in the way.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 01 2020, @01:22PM
Well, right or wrong, the Greeks lacked certain objective proofs of the spherical shape of the earth's surface, just as we lack objective proof of the infinite expansion, or cyclic expansion/contraction of the universe.
Any "flat earther" today who cares to can strap on a watch, get in a jet, and "follow the sun" westward long enough to get a pretty good sense that they are indeed circumnavigating a globe. I'd be willing to bet there was a sizeable (probably illiterate and forgotten) portion of the Greek population who believed that the mathematicians and their theories of the spherical surface of the earth were a waste of breath.
🌻🌻 [google.com]