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Breakthrough! Scientists Create and Capture Antimatter

Okay, can someone tell me in layman's terms what all this means? It sounds like a huge breakthrough but to me, sounds downright scary, as far as potential weaponry goes. But perhaps I'm not reading it right.
 
Have you read Angels and Demons? Have you seen the Red Matter in Star Trek? It's a lot like that. (but not really)
 
KrazeeEyezKilla said:
Okay, can someone tell me in layman's terms what all this means? It sounds like a huge breakthrough but to me, sounds downright scary, as far as potential weaponry goes. But perhaps I'm not reading it right.
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Mass = energy, if ya multiply the mass BIGTIME. Anti-matter and matter completely destroy each other on contact (on a one-to-one basis--If one anti-matter particle runs into a gang of 100 regular posse particles, 99 regs will be left standin).

So, ya gitz a huge conversion of mass to energy. A pound or two of each could probably power NYC for a couple decades.

I aint sayin that's right, I just likes the sounda it, mainly, ya know?
 
KrazeeEyezKilla said:
Okay, can someone tell me in layman's terms what all this means? It sounds like a huge breakthrough but to me, sounds downright scary, as far as potential weaponry goes. But perhaps I'm not reading it right.
Click to expand...

You couldn't be more right sir. It has some very scary applications as far as weapons of mass destruction goes. It also has some very promising applications as far as possible future energy alternatives go. Obviously we are a long ways off from either of those possibilities as far as we know(John Q Public), but I thought it was a very interesting read.
 
Assuming that CERN is the largest generator of antiprotons on Earth (they can make about 10 million antiprotons per minute at full operating power), it would take 100 billion years for them to make 1 gram of antihydrogen.

Now let's calculate how much antimatter it would take to literally blow the Earth to pieces. We can start with Einstein - E=mc^2, and knowing the energy required to fracture the Earth into pieces is on the order of 375 trillion Joules. Given that "c" is the speed of light, approximately 300 million meters per second, that leaves the mass as 416 trillion kilograms of antimatter.

To be less dramatic, a small amount of antimatter (something on the order of a few mL worth) could destroy a city, but again, consider the production rate. We're talking (at our current level of development, mind you) several hundred billion years to make that amount.
 
I got a couple lil experiment goin in my bathtub, my own damn self. Right now my main project is creatin a anti-Vinny, who Imma enroll on this here board. I caint wait ta sees my anti-Vinny runs into Vinny, know what I'm sayin?
 
chemdude1232 said:
To be less dramatic, a small amount of antimatter (something on the order of a few mL worth) could destroy a city, but again, consider the production rate. We're talking (at our current level of development, mind you) several hundred billion years to make that amount.
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Just shut the hell up, willya, Chem, ya spoilsport, ya?
 
I don't think weapons of such magnitude or the energy will be available in our lifetime of course. But this seems to be the first step towards anything. Either way interesting read.
 
It would be really cool if the time/money/energy spent working on this stuff was spent on something like curing AIDS or cancer or something. Reminds me of the Seinfeld bit about the scientists who work their whole lives to develop the seedless watermelon.
 
Marty McFly said:
It would be really cool if the time/money/energy spent working on this stuff was spent on something like curing AIDS or cancer or something. Reminds me of the Seinfeld bit about the scientists who work their whole lives to develop the seedless watermelon.
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I kinda think scientists have given up on Aids and Cancer research. It's just a lost cause

/sarcasm

As a scientist, you make your own contribution to society. A medical researcher and a physicist are two completely different jobs, that's like saying you should quit being an insurance salesman and do something useful like play pro ball.

Different skill set.
 
The-Joker said:
I kinda think scientists have given up on Aids and Cancer research. It's just a lost cause

/sarcasm

As a scientist, you make your own contribution to society. A medical researcher and a physicist are two completely different jobs, that's like saying you should quit being an insurance salesman and do something useful like play pro ball.

Different skill set.
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This is false. Supposedly a BYU professor may have found a cure for aids.
 
Marty McFly said:
It would be really cool if the time/money/energy spent working on this stuff was spent on something like curing AIDS or cancer or something. Reminds me of the Seinfeld bit about the scientists who work their whole lives to develop the seedless watermelon.
Click to expand...

So we should focus all of our attention and money on cancer and aids? It's a nice thought but don't you think there are people researching aids and cancer as we speak? We could pump all this money into it and not find much more than we have.
 
hospitals dont want a ruca for cancer, they want ruca's to keep coming back for treatment
 
Since there is no significant natural source of anti-matter, ultimately it will never be more than a really compact storage device for energy generated by other means.

Many doctors lose loved ones to cancer. The idea they don't want a ruca for canceer is just ignorant.
 
High-level physics, as well as many other seemingly esoteric branches of study, have gotten this knock for a while now: that probing the limits of nature around us is irresponsible since it is essentially a cash sink and detracts from more "real-life" concerns like finding a cure for AIDS, cancer, etc.

I couldn't disagree more.

The most basic premise in science, the beginning of knowledge is, "I do not know." To me that makes most research entirely relevant within their own domains.
 
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