Scientists trap anti-matter

[JOVE23]

MY BAIRNS!!



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_switzerland_antimatter

In breakthrough, scientists trap antimatter atoms



By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Frank Jordans, Associated Press – 2 hrs 20 mins ago



GENEVA – Scientists may have been able to capture elusive atoms of antimatter, but don't expect that to lead to interstellar rocket engines or powerful bombs anytime soon — if ever.



Even as they announced the important advance in studying antimatter, they emphasized that science fiction uses of the stuff — like propelling the starship Enterprise in "Star Trek" or fueling a bomb in Dan Brown's book "Angels and Demons" — remain in the realm of the imagination.



International physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said they had overcome a basic problem in studying atoms of antimatter. While such atoms have been created routinely in the lab for years, they tend to disappear so fast that scientists don't have a chance to study them.



But in a report published online by the journal Nature, the scientists said they'd been able to trap individual atoms and keep them around for a bit more than one-tenth of a second.



To a particle physicist, that's a pretty long time.



"For us it's a big breakthrough because it means we can take the next step, which is to try to compare matter and antimatter," the team's spokesman, American scientist Jeffrey Hangst, told The Associated Press on Thursday



Hangst and his colleagues, who included scientists from Britain, Brazil, Canada, Israel and the United States, trapped 38 anti-hydrogen atoms individually. Hangst says that since the experiments they reported in Nature, they've been able to hold on to the atoms even longer.



"Unfortunately I can't tell you how long, because we haven't published the number yet," Hangst told the AP. "But I can tell you that it's much, much longer than a tenth of a second. Within human comprehension on a real clock."



Studying such trapped atoms could help answer basic questions in physics, like why antimatter has disappeared from the natural universe while ordinary matter abounds in the stars, planets and galaxies. Theorists say both must have been created in equal amounts in the Big Bang.



Two teams had been competing to trap anti-hydrogen atoms at CERN, the world's largest physics lab best known for its $10 billion smasher, the Large Hadron Collider. The collider, built deep under the Swiss-French border, wasn't used for this experiment.



Hangst's team beat a rival group led by Harvard physicist Gerald Gabrielse, who nevertheless welcomed the result.



"The atoms that were trapped were not yet trapped very long and in a very usable number, but one has to crawl before you sprint," he told the AP.



To trap the anti-atoms inside an electromagnetic field and to stop them from annihilating ordinary atoms, researchers had to create anti-hydrogen at temperatures less than a half-degree above absolute zero.



Hangst played down speculation that antimatter might someday be harnessed as a source of energy or to create a powerful weapon like in "Angels and Demons."



"It would take longer than the age of the universe to make one gram of antimatter," he said, calling the process "a losing proposition because it takes much more energy to make antimatter than you get out of it."

 

[TSD]

Well, that is an important step. Theoretically, anti-matter is the key to being able to travel faster than the speed of light. the faster you go the more mass, and the speed of light requires infinite mass or something, so if you can essentially use anti-matter to create some sort of "anti-matter" field to regulate the mass of an object travelling faster than the speed of light, you could do it.

 

[bri]

I say this with the utmost respect.







Nerds

 

[the canadian dream]

Yes but can they explain Jako yet?



Until science takes that step we still live like primitives



I also agree with Bri.

 

[jakobeast]

Yes but can they explain Jako yet?



Until science takes that step we still live like primitives



I also agree with Bri.

I am unexplainable. Like anti matter, or herpes on a married guy.

 

[supraman]

I'm not sure but I think this was the step that proved anti-matter exists prior it was theory that there was anti-matter. I could be wrong though

 

[Rdrhwke]

I say this with the utmost respect.







Nerds

+1

 

[TSD]

I'm not sure but I think this was the step that proved anti-matter exists prior it was theory that there was anti-matter. I could be wrong though

I honestly can't answer that. I think it was one of those situations where, they hadn't actually physically found it, but it "had" to exist. Like building a puzzle, you can't find the right piece yet, but its there.



Kind of like the periodic table, if you notice there's slots for elements that havent been found yet, but they know they exist. How, I don't know as its rather puzzling to think, how could you know something exists when you haven't found it yet?

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

I'm not sure but I think this was the step that proved anti-matter exists prior it was theory that there was anti-matter. I could be wrong though

Yes it is a step in being able to prove it's existence, but does not prove it's existance.



The theory of anti-mater pre-dates Einstein, though his famous theoretical predication of anti-matter E=mc^2 brought the concept to the forefront. How did that theory do it, well if you work through the formula to get to E=mc^2 you find that E=+mc^2 and E=-mc^2 or negative energy. It is the negative energy (now known as anti-matter) that has been sought ever since Einstein continued that theorem into his "ties that bind" theories he worked on for the rest of his life.



/geek off

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

I honestly can't answer that. I think it was one of those situations where, they hadn't actually physically found it, but it "had" to exist. Like building a puzzle, you can't find the right piece yet, but its there.



Kind of like the periodic table, if you notice there's slots for elements that havent been found yet, but they know they exist. How, I don't know as its rather puzzling to think, how could you know something exists when you haven't found it yet?

How do they know there might be other elements to the periodic table of elements? It is all based on the atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom of that element. It also corresponds to the number of electrons in the neutral atom) and where those atomic numbers are missing. Since elements have been "created" by manipulation of the protons, it is assumed that those missing atomic numbers can exist.

 

[TSD]

How do they know there might be other elements to the periodic table of elements? It is all based on the atomic number (the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom of that element. It also corresponds to the number of electrons in the neutral atom) and where those atomic numbers are missing. Since elements have been "created" by manipulation of the protons, it is assumed that those missing atomic numbers can exist.

Look at Bill Nye the science guy over here.



Learn somthin new every day, I am actually glad I know that know. I recall that being talked about in chemistry in college, but they never explained to us the "missing" elements.



it also doesn't have to occur naturally either, If I am not mistaken, because Titanium is an element, and man made (im pretty sure).

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

Look at Bill Nye the science guy over here.



Learn somthin new every day, I am actually glad I know that know. I recall that being talked about in chemistry in college, but they never explained to us the "missing" elements.



it also doesn't have to occur naturally either, If I am not mistaken, because Titanium is an element, and man made (im pretty sure).

Sadly my father taught\did research in Physics and Chemistry at the college level. I had no choice but to have that information ingrained into my mind...no matter how much I drink to try and kill those brain cells (which drinking does not do either).



You are correct, it does not need to occur naturally on Earth to be on the table.

 

[Tater]

Sadly my father taught\did research in Physics and Chemistry at the college level. I had no choice but to have that information ingrained into my mind...no matter how much I drink to try and kill those brain cells (which drinking does not do either).



You are correct, it does not need to occur naturally on Earth to be on the table.

What about smoking pot?

 

[roshinaya]

Yes it is a step in being able to prove it's existence, but does not prove it's existance.



The theory of anti-mater pre-dates Einstein, though his famous theoretical predication of anti-matter E=mc^2 brought the concept to the forefront. How did that theory do it, well if you work through the formula to get to E=mc^2 you find that E=+mc^2 and E=-mc^2 or negative energy. It is the negative energy (now known as anti-matter) that has been sought ever since Einstein continued that theorem into his "ties that bind" theories he worked on for the rest of his life.



/geek off

The existence of anti-matter was first suggested by physicist Paul Dirac, who tried to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity, sometime in the 1920s. Diracs equation could describe the electron at any speed, until then they had always gotten the wrong answers when it came to describing electrons moving close to the speed of light. The equation needs the existence of anti-particles to work and a couple of years later it was proved with the discovery of the anti-electron, the positron.



I don't think that there is any doubt in the physics world about the existence of anti-matter. Most models seem to require it. The big question, as the article states, is the baryon asymmetry, why there seems to be more matter than anti-matter in the universe.



All in all, an exciting breakthrough in understanding the fabric of reality itself.

 

[JOVE23]

So when do we get Star Trek?

 

[phranchk]

What about smoking pot?

It actually has the opposite effect. It appears to preserve brain cells.

 

[roshinaya]

it also doesn't have to occur naturally either, If I am not mistaken, because Titanium is an element, and man made (im pretty sure).

Titanium occurs in nature, although combined with other elements. I believe for the man-made elements you need to go to the heavier elements past Uranium, I don't think they are stable enough to occur naturally.

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

The existence of anti-matter was first suggested by physicist Paul Dirac, who tried to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity, sometime in the 1920s. Diracs equation could describe the electron at any speed, until then they had always gotten the wrong answers when it came to describing electrons moving close to the speed of light. The equation needs the existence of anti-particles to work and a couple of years later it was proved with the discovery of the anti-electron, the positron.



I don't think that there is any doubt in the physics world about the existence of anti-matter. Most models seem to require it. The big question, as the article states, is the baryon asymmetry, why there seems to be more matter than anti-matter in the universe.



All in all, an exciting breakthrough in understanding the fabric of reality itself.

Relativity, and the bigger formula(s) that break down to E=mc^2 was proposed in the 1800's, FYI. While Dirac tends to get credit for the term "Anti-Mater", it was in fact Enstein that realized it's existence and called it "negative energy" based on the info I listed in an earlier post. It all came out in Einstein's 1905 Special Theory of Relativity (which is in fact where I got my post information from). There is also a famous quote from Einstein about why he felt "negative energy" had to exist.

 

[roshinaya]

So when do we get Star Trek?

When the Vulcans initiate first contact.

 

[BiscuitintheBasket]

So when do we get Star Trek?

You volunteering to wear the red shirt?