Utopia Talk / Politics / OT - Antimatter

Hot Rod Member	Sat Nov 20 06:56:12 Scientists (Briefly) Trap Elusive Antimatter Updated: 1 day 15 hours ago (Nov. 18) -- It powered the Starship Enterprise's warp drive and almost blew up the Vatican in Dan Brown's novel "Angel & Demons." But antimatter is no longer confined to the realm of far-fetched fiction. Scientists have now discovered how to capture and contain matter's elusive and exotic counterpart. In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland detail how they caught 38 atoms of anti-hydrogen -- the simplest type of antimatter -- and stored them for about two-tenths of a second. Sci-fi geeks or mad papal aides shouldn't celebrate yet, however. Scientists (Briefly) Trap Elusive Antimatter CERN / AP An image taken by the ALPHA annihilation detector shows untrapped antihydrogen atoms annihilating on the inner surface of the ALPHA trap. The events are concentrated at the electrode radius of about 22.3 mm. "[Thirty-eight atoms is] an incredibly small amount," said Rob Thompson, head of physics and astronomy at Canada's University of Calgary and one of the paper's 42 co-authors. "Nothing like what we would need to power 'Star Trek's' Starship Enterprise or even to heat a cup of coffee." For science lovers, though, this small yield is big news. By fine-tuning the process, researchers hope they'll eventually be able to unravel some of the universe's biggest mysteries. Theorists suspect that the Big Bang produced equal amounts of matter (atoms with positively charged nuclei and negatively charged orbiting electrons) and antimatter (which has negatively charged nuclei and positively charged electrons). When the two collide, they cancel each other out and generate a small burst of energy. But, physicists have long wondered, if matter and antimatter were created in equal measure at the birth of the cosmos, why didn't they annihilate each other, destroying the young universe in the process? And why is the cosmos now full of matter while antimatter is seemingly absent from nature? Tests on the trapped antimatter atoms might help explain this universal imbalance. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, anti-hydrogen and normal hydrogen should have identical energy levels -- something that can be measured by blasting the atoms with a laser -- and react to gravity in the same way. If any differences are revealed between the counterparts, "everything needs to be re-examined, and textbooks need to be rewritten," Jeffrey Hangst, a physics professor at Denmark's Aarhus University and the lead author of the study, told the Los Angeles Times. Progress in particle physics is a slow process, though, and it will likely be years before researchers begin testing. Sponsored Links The European Organization for Nuclear Research started mass-producing anti-hydrogen atoms in 2002, but their energetic behavior made them almost impossible to study. That's because as soon as the atoms touch matter, even the walls of the vacuum container where they're made, they vanish. Hangst and his cohorts spent five years developing a way to cool the anti-hydrogen atoms down to just a half-degree above absolute zero -- the lowest temperature theoretically possible -- and put them into a low energy state. Researchers then kept the atoms away from container walls by suspending them in a "magnetic bowl." Scientists will have to catch 100 atoms in that bowl at once -- the 38 atoms snared so far weren't caught at the same time -- before the laser zapping can start. The Vatican, it seems, is safe for a little while yet. Filed under: World, Weird News, Science http://www...ap-elusive-antimatter/19723607
NeverWoods Member	Sat Nov 20 07:03:00 Long way to go still.
Hot Rod Member	Sat Nov 20 07:08:26 I wonder what will eat us up first? Man made black holes or man made antimatter. :)
Hot Stick Member	Sat Nov 20 07:10:58 Just *IMAGINE* the military applications. I wonder how many people we can use this technology to *KILL*.
milton bradley Member	Sat Nov 20 07:25:34 isnt your mom anti-matter by now?
NeverWoods Member	Sat Nov 20 07:26:01 "I wonder what will eat us up first? Man made black holes or man made antimatter. :)" Man made stupidity.
Milton bradley Member	Sat Nov 20 08:11:25 how many hundreds of millions of brown skinned children would you like to kill with this genocide rod?
Nimatzo Member	Sat Nov 20 08:18:23 I remember reading right after the Dan Brown movie, that they had already captured anti-matter prior to the movie. But that using anti matter as a source of energy was very very very unfeasible because of the energy it took to create just a microscopic amount of anti-matter.
Hot Rod Member	Sat Nov 20 08:30:20 Nim, almost technologies are ultra expensive at the beginning. In 50 or a hundred years, who know.
Milton Bradley Member	Sat Nov 20 08:46:42 Not you since you don't understand science because you dropped out at 8th grade.
Hot Rod Member	Sat Nov 20 09:18:32 What part of "almost" is completely eluding you you stupid ass. If you cannot contribute something positive you should STFU. Some people are interested in this stuff and they don't need your spam.
Nimatzo Member	Sat Nov 20 09:20:45 Apparently it costs 25 million dollars to make 1 NANOgram of this stuff. Looks like oil is going to be cheaper for a looooooooong time :D
Milton Bradley Member	Sat Nov 20 09:27:12 8th grade educaton hot rod thinks it's a viable alternative to other sources of energy.
Nimatzo Member	Sat Nov 20 09:41:14 Actually no, he didn't say that. Hot Rod say enough stupid things for us to NOT make shit up. It reflect poorly upon you.
Milton Bradley Member	Sat Nov 20 09:43:37 "Nim, almost technologies are ultra expensive at the beginning. In 50 or a hundred years, who know." Not reading reflects poorly on you.
Nimatzo Member	Sat Nov 20 09:48:52 What part of that sentence do you have a problem with? That part where says "who know" or the general ambiguity over whether It is possible?
Hot Rod Member	Sat Nov 20 09:49:48 MB, beings you are too stupid to fill in the blanks let me correct my *grammatical* errors. *Nim, almost all technologies are ultra expensive at the beginning. In 50 or a hundred years, who knows?*
NeverWoods Member	Sat Nov 20 09:50:15 AH please lay it off.
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