Brane Gates

On a lighter note, I just read this in my Bloglines reader from Slashdot: Apparently, Dr Alexander Shatskiy, from the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow has postulated a way to detect the difference between a black hole and a wormhole.

One of the consequences of M-Theory (a theoretical framework devised as a possible solution to the apparent duality inherent in much of string theory, as a way of unifying the five major superstring "flavors") is that there are very likely multiple "universes" (if you accept the basic premises of M-theory, and that many of the forces we see propagating in "our" universe (such as gravity, which propagates very weakly compared to the other three fundamental forces) are in at least some sense really the echoes of interaction between various "branes" (universes) and ours. Gravity, for instance, as we perceive it, is really "leaked into" our universe from and adjacent one.

Anyway...

Wormholes are theoretically permissible in general relativity, but so far no reliable means of detecting them has been proposed.

Enter Dr. Shatskiy.

Interesting, intriguing... and although I anticipate it'll basically amount to nothing, it's fun to think about, anyway...