Now here is the reason why I said we are “light-years away” - scientific discovery happens in stages … there are discoveries of phenomena and then there are stages of application development. To create the technology for stable worm holes we need another few discovery steps … if we are lucky we may get them sooner if we are not lucky it could take a very long time … after the initial discovery required then about 50 years or so is needed to create a possible application.
Research only improves our understanding of known things … but to discover new things we need inspiration and unveilings … they do not necessarily come with a lot of research, but people who are in the domain already, can help understand discoveries when they happen. I feel the next big discovery is going to happen on the sub-atomic stage … the physics of today is vastly different to the physics of yesteryear because a lot more of it is theoretical …