Posted on 10/13/2006 6:03:47 PM PDT by blam
Antimatter and matter combine in chemical reaction
19:47 13 October 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Stephen Battersby
Mixing antimatter and matter usually has predictably violent consequences – the two annihilate one another in a fierce burst of energy.
But physicists in Geneva have found a new way to make the two combine, at least briefly, into a single substance. This exceptionally unstable stuff, made of protons and antiprotons, is called protonium.
The feat of "antichemistry" actually took place back in 2002, but nobody had realised it until now. It happened in an experiment at the CERN particle physics lab, when both antiprotons and positrons – which have the same mass as electrons but an opposite charge – were put into the same magnetic cage. Some of them combined to make antihydrogen, which was the original aim of the experiment.
Now it seems that the same setup also produced a more peculiar, hybrid kind of matter, according to an analysis of the pattern of particle shrapnel flying out of the experiment.
Researchers led by Evandro Rizzini at Italy's University of Brescia believe that some of the antiprotons reacted with ionised molecules of ordinary hydrogen, stealing away a proton. These proton-antiproton systems lasted microseconds at most, but that was long enough for many of them to drift away from the core of the experiment before exploding.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Proton torpedos!
This was the basis for a bomb at the Vatican in Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons". It even mention its discovery at CERN..
Cool beans.
but you need dilithium crystals to make the warp engines work
Perhaps the makings of a new 'battery' ... for storing power?
"but you need dilithium crystals to make the warp engines work"
I feel kinda geeky because I thought the exact same thing...
LLAP
Space, the final frontier ....
Isn't this stuff BizarroMatter?
ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!
Ha!
Loved that movie.
I even like the Alien actress in that movie.
:-) gooooood movie.
The whole movie was funny. A great takeoff of all of the Sci-Fi genre.
And Sigorney was awesome.
Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Don't cross the streams!
This would be to Nuclear what Nuclear was to dynamite. Making it stable will be a very great challenge.
>>>>>"Making it stable will be a very great challenge"<<<<<
Are you Married?
When the Wife and I were introduced to each other by our mutual friends/relatives it was supposed to be a big joke on both of us, we were complete opposites and their expectations were born out those first couple of days (they were memorable days that we still enjoy recalling) we freaked them all out that the days lasted into weeks then months and then next thing they knew we were ONE.
(I know it's a bit of a diversion)
I told that story so that I could relate this little tidbit
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, if you want to do it bad enough, man is clever enough to figure out a way. Impossible is for losers.
(Did anyone else read "On the Shoulders of Giants")
TT
I didn't mean to suggest that it is impossible, if we put our minds to it we can accomplish it. The potential for energy as well is the military implications are stupendous. Let the work begin.
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