When matter touches antimatter, bad things happen. Getting the two to play well together, or at least store antimatter in a way that keeps it separate from matter, could yield an amazing energy source. Substantial work began this week to do just that.
The work involves constructing an antimatter “trap.” With this trap, physicist Clifford Surko of the University of California, San Diego hopes to overcome the storage issue that would see interstellar ships exploding in space, and replace it with the world’s largest antimatter storage container.
How large? If estimates are correct, each trap would contain some “tens of billions of anti-particles” in an array of cells that he compares to a hotel with many rooms. To keep the antiparticles from touching the sides of the cells, Surko and his team would manipulate them with magnetism and electric fields.
Ultimately, the bottles could be portable, which would greatly increase their real-world potential, as well as the chance that they fall into an evil mastermind’s hands. Either way, exciting times ahead. [MSNBC]
Awnshegh
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 11:13 AMHasn’t the maths on antimatter already proven that Antimatter use as an energy source is simply not worth the effort.
I think an antimatter trap would be useful however in providing the science community the chance do substantially better and more intricate experiments on our molecular opposites.
Nodeity
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 11:15 AMHmmm,.. A few particles of Anti Matter in a magnetic container,.. power failure,.. tiny little Boom. Many Thousands of Anti Matter particles in a magnetic container,.. power failure,.. big Friggin BOOM.!!
Rizlad
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 3:08 PMok so i ready gizmodo and i pretend i know whats going on here…. first of all, WTF is antimatter andyways?! i realise it goes “BooM” like a badass but thats not really informative nor helpful. how is it that particles that are mad up of matter (correct me if im wrong but everything that exists has to exist of some form of matter) can become anti matter particles and blow things up upon contact, furthermore what happens when this shit becomes mainstream and we have terrorists blowing up like the whole planet with it!?
olearymo
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 5:41 PMit’d be no more likely than them doing the same thing with nukes.
Actually, it’d be more difficult and cumbersome.
Does antimatter only destroy an amount of matter equal to itself? i.e. will 1kg of antimatter only annihilate 1kg of matter? Or will it release the energy, e=mc2 style, like a nuclear bomb?
Nodeity
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 9:13 AMI think you’re getting ahead of yourself here, firstly, it’s called anti matter because it is the exact opposite of matter, and hence will only interact with an equal amount of matter, unlike fission, which is a cascade effect. Secondly, we’re talking about microscopic amounts of the stuff, I mean like particles. Thirdly, it will be a long time before they can collect enough to actually use in the real world,.. so rest easy dude, the terrorists won’t be getting a hold of the stuff any time soon…. :]
James Carson
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 7:53 PMdude… if terrorists could afford antimatter (or an antimatter trap), they would easily be able develop their own nukes. trust me, its way out of their budget