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Antimatter

 The world’s largest scientific research facility-Switzerland’s Conseil European pour la Recherche Nucleaire (CERN)-recently succeeded in producing the first particles of antimatter. Antimatter is identical to physical matter except that it is composed of particles whose electric charges are opposite to those found in normal matter.

Antimatter is the most powerful energy source known to man. It releases energy with 100 percent efficiency (nuclear fission is 1.5 percent efficient). Antimatter creates no pollution or radiation, and a droplet could power New York City for a full day.
There is, however, one catch . . .  Antimatter is highly unstable. It ignites when it comes in contact with absolutely anything . . . even air. A single gram of antimatter contains the energy of a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb-the size of
the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Until recently antimatter has been created only in very small amounts (a few atoms at a time).


The History of Antimatter:

The history of antimatter begins in 1928 with a young physicist named Paul Dirac and a strange mathematical equation...

The equation, in some way, predicted the existence of an antiworld identical to ours but made out of antimatter. Was this possible? if so, where and how could we search for antimatter?

From 1930, the search for the possible constituents of antimatter, antiparticles, began, and it has been the main influence behind a major scientific and technical evolution over the last 70 years.

The Mystery of Antimatter

Look at yourself in the mirror: what if the guy just in front of you, the one in the mirror, really existed?

Physicists have already been thinking about this question, they would call the guy an "antiyou".
And physicists even imagined that somewhere far away there could be a world that looks just like our own, or rather like the mirror image of it. It would be an antiworld with antistars, antihouses, antistrawberries, all made of ANTIMATTER!

Everyday Antimatter

Antimatter - a mirror image of matter - is an idea so revolutionary that even its discoverer initially feared its consequences. It annihilates with ordinary matter, disappearing in a puff of energy - the ultimate scientific experiment.

This annihilation is a compelling scenario for science fiction. The first example was robots with brains having antimatter pathways. Now antimatter is used every day in medicine for brain scans.

Transforming all its mass into pure energy, antimatter is the perfect fuel. Star Trek's faster-than-light science-fiction spaceships use antimatter power, but research projects have also investigated the use of antimatter fuel for real.

By: priyeshu
Published: 08/02/08


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8 Posted Comments:

antimatter

@ 3:19 am 08/04/08 by princessjoy25
I'm a chemist, not a physicist so I guess I have to ask these question: How can this antimatter be in use today in medicine if it is so highly reactive? And I do know the term because it is also used in Chemistry :O)

If something that reactive can be easily used in medicine, then according to my logic it would be very easy to harness for electricity.
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Very cool

@ 7:23 pm 08/19/08 by R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen
Antimatter always fascinated me. Nice job on this article. Check mine out if you have time.
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Antimatter

@ 6:57 am 08/29/08 by priyeshu
I special thanks to R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen. Sir I would really love if you would provide me link to your article. I hope it should be better than mine :) And I am a newbie in this field.
I hope I get some knowledge working with such great peoples.

@princessjoy25 Sir I am trying my best researches to find you the appropriate answers I will mail you as soon as I get the right thing.
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@ 8:15 pm 08/29/08 by Willow Sidhe
Interesting article on a topic I know nothing about. :) Thanks for the info.
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@ 8:45 am 08/31/08 by priyeshu
Please rate my article good if you like it. I need AP ratings for my succession in this field.
Thankz :)
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@ 8:05 pm 09/05/08 by parth
Oh man , cern created a hydron collider. Antimatter isn't the thing they created recently. Dan brown did make antimatter famous in one of his books. Untill then i thought that antimatter was fiction but its true man lets see what happens on 10th sep
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@ 9:05 pm 09/12/08 by C.D. Crowder
Interesting article. As with most scientific discoveries, it's hard to know the extent of possible consequences until it's too late.
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@ 12:38 am 11/16/08 by Ranz365
Thanks for this interesting article! As a man of Physics, I had some idea on antimatter and the annihilation process. Sure, it will give an excellet solution to present day's energy crises, if applied accordingly! Please send more links. Thanks once again!
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