• Question: In the game portal you have a gun that alows you to jumpo though one place and apear in another, if the theory of worm holes, which states thay have the smae effect as this portal gun, is tue, could it be harnessed.

    Asked by levi6398 to Ben, Jony, Mark on 25 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 25 Nov 2011:

      I don’t think so I am afraid, would be cool though. The reason is the immense intense amount of gravitational energy required to pierce space time. You usually need a the collapse of a star over 1.5 times the size of the Sun, which collapses to form a black hole. Or if there are indeed extra dimensions you might be able to pierce space-time for a very brief fraction of a second using a very energetic and focussed beam of particles – such as the Large Hadron Collider – but this is still theory. Either way it would not be controllable in any way and would create random portals to almost anywhere in space-time if it is plausible, which given current evidence I do not think it is.

    • Photo: Jony Hudson

      Jony Hudson answered on 25 Nov 2011:

      No one knows how to make a portal gun yet. Wormholes have been suggested theoretically, but there’s not any evidence to show that they exist. And even if they did, we don’t have the technology to harness them yet.

      I think, though, that Portal shows just how amazing computer games have become. We can now build artificial worlds where we can “try out” new laws of physics! It’s totally crazy, and great fun to see as a scientist.

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