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A trio of physicists with the Autonomous University of Barcelona has built what they claim is the first artificial magnetic wormhole. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, Jordi Prat-Camps, Carles Navau and Alvaro Sanchez describe how they built the device and why they believe it might prove useful in building a more user-friendly MRI machine.
People have grown familiar with the term wormhole as it applies to physics and science-fiction. It has been described as a portal in space-time, where an object, or perhaps a person, could be transported from one region of space to another, nearly instantaneously. And while the theory has stood the test of time, no one has ever been able to prove that they actually exist. In this new effort, the researchers built a much simpler version, one that applies only to a magnetic field. Their device essentially allows for a magnetic field to be conveyed from one point to another, while remaining magnetically invisible.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-trio-artificial-magnetic-wormhole.html
[Abstract]: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep12488
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Francis on Saturday August 22 2015, @04:14AM
I'm not sure you know what a theory is if it's stood the test of time, but nobody's been able to make it work. It's not a theory if it hasn't been tested experimentally, it's a hypothesis. Apparently a hypothesis with no obvious mathematical errors, but it's still just a hypothesis until such a time as it's actually tested.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see somebody succeed, but until that happens, calling it a theory is playing fast and loose with terminology in a context where it matters.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by unzombied on Saturday August 22 2015, @10:19PM
Exactly. Might even go further by calling the wormhole theory "conjecture." Further, if one redefines "wormhole" to include this "invisible magnetic field conveyence," well, once you start making up definitons, no one can know what you're talking about. Leaving conjecture and entering fictional nonsense.