It is that time of year again.
The snow is falling. The nights are long and the days short. The temperature has dropped into negative figures. And everywhere, people are smiling, laughing, and enjoying themselves.
Christmas has that effect on us. People are just a little happier. Young people are excited. Santa Claus is on his way, bringing presents at this time of year. Everyone catches the spirit of Christmas.
Well, almost everyone.
There are always a few Grinches out there. The Ebenezer Scrooges of the world declaring “Bah, humbag!” and putting on their sour faces.
And every year, someone sends me an e-mail pointing out the scientific impossibility of Santa Claus. How could he possibly visit every child, all over the world, in a single night, they ask?
But this is a limited view of reality. Simply put there are things we do not understand yet and, perhaps more importantly, there is much we don’t know that we don’t know. We are learning, though.
This year, scientists were able to make a small wormhole in a computer chip connecting two regions of spacetime.
A portal which allowed information to flow from one point to another without passing through the space in-between.
Wormholes are a consequence of relativistic gravitational theory, and it is possibly they connect all of space simultaneously.
Maybe Santa Claus worked this out long before the scientists.
Where do all of the presents come from? Strangely enough, the news has recently been filled with stories about scientists being able to carry out a fusion reaction that generated excess energy. And with enough energy, matter can be made. This is Einstein’s equation.
Is it possible that Santa Claus is just a very advanced scientist? Or maybe it’s his elves which really worked all of this out?
We don’t know what we don’t know.
All I really do know is that at this time of year, in the heart of winter, people smile a little more, children are excited, families and friends spend time together, and the world is just a bit better.
Maybe Santa Claus is just a belief. But a belief worth having because it makes the world a better place. And isn’t that what this time of year is all about?
Todd Whitcombe is a UNBC professor of chemistry and Prince George writer.
