24 | New Scientist | 12 September 2020
A
FTER months of social
isolation, Zoom birthday
parties and loved ones
falling ill with the coronavirus,
many of us here in the US are
feeling exhausted and fearful
about both the present and
the future.
This is especially true for
those of us who are Black/Afro-
descended. We have faced not
only disproportionate death
rates from covid-19, but persistent,
public and violent harassment
from state authorities and
vigilantes, making many of
us afraid for ourselves and
our communities.
As I have struggled to stay
focused in the midst of what
seems like never-ending public
grief, I have caught myself
wondering: could a wormhole
help us get out of this mess?
In the popular imagination,
a wormhole is a rip in space-time
that provides a shortened pathway
between distant locations in the
universe. The lore goes that if you
enter a wormhole, you could end
up on the other side of the galaxy.
The idea of wormholes
was popularised around the time
that freeways were becoming an
increasingly important feature
of life in the US. For us, I think
wormholes have always seemed
something like “the great cosmic
highway”. Of course, we know
now that freeways are bad for the
environment and were completely
destructive to the communities
that they broke up. What’s more,
traffic on such roads has been a
painful misery nearly everywhere
that I have lived.
Yet there is still something
exciting about linking parts of
space-time together in a way that –
at least in theory – facilitates quick
travel between distant locations,
providing a means for escape that
defies the universal speed limit,the speed of light. A wormhole
is conceptually more fun than a
black hole because you can leave it.
A black hole, on the other hand, is
forever. Once you enter, you can’t
escape because there is a point of
no return – the event horizon.
In reality, scientists are fairly
certain that black holes exist.
We have extensive circumstantial
evidence in the form of the
behaviour of particles near
galactic centres, which are
moving so energetically that
the best explanation for what
we see is the presence of a black
hole in the middle of it all.Then, last year, the Event
Horizon Telescope took an image
that is most likely to be of the edge
of a black hole. But while black
holes almost certainly exist,
wormholes aren’t so likely.
The first wormholes – also
known as Einstein-Rosen bridges,
after Albert Einstein and Nathan
Rosen – were understood as a
mathematical solution to one
of Einstein’s equations, which
connected black holes and a sort
of hypothetical, mirror-image
version of them called white holes.
Just as black holes can be
entered but not exited, white
holes can be exited but not
entered. The idea that wormholes
link black and white holes
together is delightful, but
it has the problem that the
connections would be unstable.
Wormholes, if they are
real, would collapse if anything
traversed them at slower than
the speed of light – that is to say,if anything with mass did. Plus,
just like black holes, it would be
hard to get close to one.
There is hope for wormholes,
however. Early research about
them focused on models that
only accounted for gravity in
an empty space-time. Once we
added quantum mechanics into
the equation, scientists including
Stephen Hawking hypothesised
that wormholes may live longer.
An alternative fix would be
to introduce an exotic form of
matter that exists everywhere,
but it would have to be something
different from dark matter or dark
energy, and there is no evidence
for something like that.
Research on these topics
continues, but I don’t expect
to be able to make use of a real
wormhole any time soon, and
I have little hope for observational
evidence of one either.
That said, wormholes can still
provide a useful escape. Regular
readers of this column know that
I am a big fan of Star Trek, and my
favourite series in the franchise is
Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9),
which imagines the diplomatic,
militaristic and spiritual
possibilities of the Federation’s
management of a wormhole.
Early in the series, we learn that
Commander Benjamin Sisko, the
first Black lead of a Star Trek show,
is known by and important to the
Prophets, the space-time entities
that live in the wormhole.
The story that unfolds over
the next seven seasons sends
a strong message: it is a Black
person, in part through his
relationship with the Prophets,
who will help save the alpha
quadrant from destruction.
When I am feeling hopeless
about our conditions on Earth,
the story of DS9 and its wormhole
provides a valuable escape – and
an inspiring vision of the future. ❚This column appears
monthly. Up next week:
Graham Lawton“ The lore goes
that if you enter
a wormhole, you
could end up on
the other side of
the galaxy”Wormholes to the rescue The chances that wormholes
exist are slim, but this doesn’t mean that they can’t provide
a useful escape, writes Chanda Prescod-WeinsteinField notes from space-time
What I’m reading
In Defense of Looting: A
riotous history of uncivil
action by Vicky Osterweil
is providing me with lots
of food for thought.What I’m watching
I am enjoying Lewis
Hamilton’s F1 victories,
including his salutes
to Wakanda and
Black Lives Matter.What I’m working on
A postgraduate
introduction to
cosmology.Chanda’s week
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
is an assistant professor of
physics and astronomy, and
a core faculty member in
women’s studies at the
University of New Hampshire.
Her research in theoretical
physics focuses on cosmology,
neutron stars and particles
beyond the standard modelViews Columnist