Collider scientists close in on antimatter

[kpete]

Source: ABC

Scientists say they have trapped and stored atoms of antihydrogen for a record 16 minutes, a feat that promises deeper insights into the mysteries of antimatter.

At the moment of the big bang, nearly 14 billion years ago, matter and antimatter are thought to have existed in equal quantities. But matter and anti-matter annihilate each other in a small flash of energy when they collide.

If that balance had persisted, the observable universe we inhabit would never have come into being. For unknown reasons nature seemed to have a slight preference for matter.

This asymmetry remains one of the greatest riddles in particle physics. Low-energy experiments with hydrogen atoms could be a key step toward solving this riddle.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/06/3236525.htm

[snooper2]

1. But the'ys a gonna detroy earthy!

They's a don't know what they messin' with!

It could start a black hole thingy and we all die!

:rofl:

[edbermac]

2. Get Scotty on it! He knows all about anti-matter!

When he's sober, of course.

[SpiralHawk]

3. CAPTION: "Don't bogart the Beer Bong, buddy." - Scotty Scientist

[greiner3]

4. Republicans=

Anti-matter

[valerief]

5. Can they fuse Republicans and Antirepublicans so we can finally be rid of them? nt

[AndyTiedye]

6. How Do We Know there Isn't an Equal Quantity of Antimatter Somewhere Else?

The universe is really, really big.

[RedCloud]

7. What about the third form? "Does it really matter?"

[KansDem]

8. This kind of research should be going on in *this* country...

But, no! We have "deficit hawks" (but not when it comes to bogus wars, welfare for corporations, and tax cuts for the wealthiest), anti-science, anti-education Christian loons, overall dipshits and morons in high places in government, and an electorate that has a "me first; fuck you" attitude (when they aren't watching "American Idol" or this week's "Game of the Century") that has sent this once great nation into third-world status.

There was a time we'd be doing this kind of research. But not anymore...

[cliffordu]

9. IT's all fun and games till someone loses

a galaxy.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Perhaps the dissappeared anti-matter has gone back in time to a pre-Big Bang Era?

Scientists will now look for "violations" or discrepancies in something called the charge-parity-time reversal (CPT) symmetry.

CPT says that a particle moving forward through time in our universe should be indistinguishable from an antiparticle moving backwards through time in a mirror universe.

"But half the universe has gone missing, so some kind of rethink is apparently on the agenda."

Thanks for the thread, kpete.