Wormholes!

[jimbogumbo]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04201-6

[Parasaurolophus]

Cool. I like model toys.

Practically speaking, is this any different from recovering ancient DNA in biology/palaeontology? (As in, it's really cool that we can recover ancient DNA fragments, but there's really not much else can hope to do with them.)

[Ruralguy]

It may be the most practical way of "experimenting" with wormholes  until (if ever) astrophysical wormholes are actually discovered. So, not practical in the sense of you can't actually time/space travel with them, but if you can learn about the "real" ones, perhaps it will give us insight into how to look for them "out there" and what to do with them if we find them.
But mostly, its just kind of cool.  And for the record, I also think its cool that we can dig up Richard III and prove its him, etc.. and more practically, use that tech to solve cold cases and such.

[Parasaurolophus]

To be clear, by 'practical' I mean whether the toy model sufficiently reflects elements of reality for us to learn about them. In other words, the question is whether there's hope for learning about more than just the toy itself.

I don't mean practical applications in the sense of constructing a stargate!

[arcturus]

To be clear, by 'practical' I mean whether the toy model sufficiently reflects elements of reality for us to learn about them. In other words, the question is whether there's hope for learning about more than just the toy itself.

I don't mean practical applications in the sense of constructing a stargate!

I want a stargate!!!! Please beam me very far away from my current responsibilities...