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Scientists have successfully trapped antimatter for the first time at CERN
Topic Started: Thursday Nov 18 2010, 05:34 PM (956 Views)
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http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11/18/switzerland.cern.antimatter/

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Researchers at CERN, the Geneva-based particle physics laboratory, have managed to confine single antihydrogen atoms in a magnetic trap.

This will allow them to conduct a more detailed study of antihydrogen, which will in turn allow scientists to compare matter and antimatter.

Understanding antimatter is one of the biggest challenges facing science -- most theoretical physicists and cosmologists believe that at the Big Bang, when the universe was created, matter and antimatter were produced in equal amounts.

However, as our world is made up of matter, antimatter seems to have disappeared.

Understanding antimatter could shed light on why almost everything in the known universe consists of matter.

Antimatter has been very difficult to handle because matter and antimatter don't get on, destroying each other instantly on contact in a violent flash of energy.

In a precursor to today's experiment, in 2002 scientists at CERN produced antihydrogen atoms in large quantities, but they had an incredibly short lifespan -- just several milliseconds -- because the antihydrogen came into contact with the walls of their containers and the two annihilated each other.

In this latest experiment the lifespan of the antihydrogen atoms was extended by using magnetic fields to trap them and thus prevent them from coming into contact with matter.

The researchers created 38 antihydrogen atoms and held on to them for about a tenth of a second, which is long enough to study them says Professor Jeffrey Hangst, one of the team of CERN scientists who worked on the program.

Hangst and his colleagues produced a magnet field which was strongest near the walls of the trap, falling to a minimum at the center, causing the atoms to collect there in a vacuum.

"This will help us understand the structure of space and time. For reasons that no one yet understands, nature ruled out antimatter... this inspires us to work that much harder to see if antimatter holds some secret."

Malcolm Longair, professor of natural philosophy at Cambridge University, told CNN that CERN's results were a considerable achievement.

"At the Big Bang we believe the temperatures were very very high and we understand in theory why antimatter disappeared but there is no physical theory to back it up."

Antimatter was first predicted in 1931 by the British physicist Paul Dirac, who theorized that antimatter is ordinary matter in reverse.

CERN's next ambition is to create a beam of antimatter which they hope will allow them to unpeel more of the mysteries surrounding it.

Pretty fucking cool.
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Necrotrophic
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NFunspoiler
Thursday Nov 18 2010, 05:34 PM
Pretty fucking cool.
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Heavy_Metal_Jesus
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They're really gonna have to pick up the pace on working with antimatter if we want photon torpedoes by the 23rd century...
Edited by Heavy_Metal_Jesus, Thursday Nov 18 2010, 06:05 PM.
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Frattracide's ghost
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Holy Feckin' shit.

The next question is: "How do we make this into a bomb?"
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Slayer706
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Frattracide's ghost
Thursday Nov 18 2010, 06:31 PM
Holy Feckin' shit.

The next question is: "How do we make this into a bomb?"
No, first we figure out how we can use it for sexual gratification. Then we figure out how to make it kill people.
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Frattracide's ghost
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Hey babay, wanna put my anithydrogen beam in your magnetically shielded vacuum for one tenth of a second?
Edited by Frattracide's ghost, Thursday Nov 18 2010, 06:53 PM.
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Deadlypixels
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No, we make it into a disease, and then have 800,00 charities raising money to help cure said disease and then even though we have literally billions of donated dollars we buy hookers instead of finding a simple cure.

(Here's looking at you cancer)
"They should put me in a Tyler Perry movie 'cause I don't know how to act" -- Off Rip
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Necrotrophic
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how do you make antimatter into a disease?

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NFunspoiler
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Frattracide's ghost
Thursday Nov 18 2010, 06:31 PM
Holy Feckin' shit.

The next question is: "How do we make this into a bomb?"
Considering it completely annihilates itself and regular matter upon contact with regular matter, I don't think it will be too hard.
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Deadlypixels
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I don't know, I don't even know what the fuck anti-matter is, but I do know I'll be watching T.V one day or browsing youtube and I'll see a news story about a girl who died because a hole opened up in her stomach and she got sucked inside of herself (Because when you say anti-matter I think blackhole)
"They should put me in a Tyler Perry movie 'cause I don't know how to act" -- Off Rip
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FOXHOUND
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Science rules.[cleft=darkslategray][/cleft][cright=black][/cright][pleft=white][/pleft][dl=black][/dl]
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Necrotrophic
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I wonder if this can eventually be used as some kind of fuel source
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Coke Von Cola
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No.
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Deadlypixels
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Can the oil companies profit off of it?
"They should put me in a Tyler Perry movie 'cause I don't know how to act" -- Off Rip
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Necrotrophic
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Coke Von Cola
Friday Nov 19 2010, 01:37 PM
No.
you're on a streak

Quote:
 

http://bigthink.com/ideas/25097

Dr. Kaku writes:

The advantage of using anti-matter is that it is potentially 100 times more powerful than an ordinary H-bomb. Nuclear bombs are only 1% efficient in converting mass to energy (via Einstein's famous equation). But anti-matter, when in contact with matter, yields a 100% efficient conversion of mass to energy. In principle, it is the greatest energy source in the universe.


Its too bad none of us will be alive to see the potential of this. Assuming we ever get to the point where we can use it efficiently at all.
Edited by Necrotrophic, Friday Nov 19 2010, 03:16 PM.
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Deadlypixels
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To bad we'll never see it because oil CEOs are like: "CAN I MAKE BILLIONS OFF IT? NO? GET THAT SHIT OUTTA HEREEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
"They should put me in a Tyler Perry movie 'cause I don't know how to act" -- Off Rip
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Coke Von Cola
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Yup.
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Coke Von Cola
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Also I never said anti matter wouldn't be efficient.
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NFunspoiler
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You just did
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Necrotrophic
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NFunspoiler
Friday Nov 19 2010, 10:26 PM
You just did
dont mind him, hes still learning how to troll. I gave him a guide, so it shouldnt be too much longer until he gets it.
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