Matthew McConaughey may have another accolade to put on his resume. In addition to his recent Academy Award and Golden Globe, he might want to add a new line item: “wormhole connoisseur.”
A wormhole is a theoretical “bridge,” or shortcut between two points in space-time, as described by Space.com contributor Nola Taylor Redd. None have been found to exist, and if they do, are likely to be highly unstable.
Nevertheless, the wormhole is a common device used in science fiction films. Most recently, McConaughey’s Interstellar character located, and went inside, a wormhole. And it’s not McConaughey’s first encounter with the scientific concept. Back in 1997, McConaughey co-starred with Jodie Foster in Contact , a film that featured an extensive sequence of wormhole travel.
The title of “connoisseur” comes courtesy of Mike Wall, writing on Space.com . Wall’s piece on the feasibility of wormhole travel quotes astrophysicist and Interstellar executive producer Kip Thorne, who says Contact deeply influenced the direction of scientific study in this area.
“The modern research on the physics of wormholes largely stems from the movie ‘Contact’ from conversations I had with [renowned late scientist] Carl Sagan — actually, when he was writing his novel ‘Contact.’”
Thorne also poured cold water on the notion that humanity could be sailing through wormholes anytime soon.
“[T]here are very strong indications that wormholes that a human could travel through are forbidden by the laws of physics. That’s sad, that’s unfortunate, but that’s the direction in which things are pointing.”
The problem is not creating the wormholes, but keeping them open. Experiments have shown negative energy could be inserted into a wormhole to prevent its walls from collapsing, but it seems certain one would never have enough negative energy for human travel to be possible. Nola Taylor Redd’s piece notes that wormholes are predicted to exist, but in microscopic size.
That could be the reason why the wormhole in Interstellar , as Wall points out, does not exist naturally, but was created by an advanced civilization.
As for McConaughey, he told USA Today before Interstellar ‘s release that he was on a quest to remain grounded in the film’s theory.
“I spent a lot of time with Chris (Nolan) going, ‘Explain the rules to this particular world we’re in. What are the rules of gravity? What are the rules of time? What are the rules we’re creating?”
As for Contact , it was not McConaughey’s character, but Foster’s, who made the trip down the wormhole. You can check out a clip of that below.
Interstellar is currently in theaters.
[Matthew McConaughey Image: Interstellar / Google]
