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Antimatter w00+

Flashover

Flashover

Lieutenant Commander
First of all... What powers Star Trek ships? ANTIMATTER. SHAME ON YOU people for not posting this sooner! :scream:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11773791

Nice Chap At BBC Says: said:
Researchers at Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, have held 38 antihydrogen atoms in place, each for a fraction of a second.
Antihydrogen has been produced before but it was instantly destroyed when it encountered normal matter.


*snip*


"We have a long way to go yet; these are atoms that don't live long enough to do anything with them. So we need a lot more atoms and a lot longer times before it's really useful - but one has to crawl before you sprint."
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Exciting stuff! In a few years you'll pull up at the Esso Station and ask the nice man to top 'er off with Premium Ungamma-ray'd and oil the magnetic constrictors. ;)
 
At this point, we're still a *very* long way from even thinking about antimatter as a power source. They're just wanting to create antimatter in order to study it for now. Besides the fact that they probably put a lot more energy into the system to create the antimatter than they would get out of it.
 
Those antimatter photos are kind of neat.
Think we can get antimatter in blue?
Of maybe green and red, for the upcoming holidays?
 
M'Sharak said:
Trekker4747 said:
Someone here has never heard of a PET Scan.
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Which really doesn't have a whole lot to do with the subject of this thread, does it?
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PET Scans have been around for a while. Not news.
Positron Emission Tomography.
Positrons are antimatter.

So the point is, Positrons (antimatter) have been around for a while, as used for PET Scans.

Which, I guess, DOES have something to do with the subject here.
 
Actually, PET uses anti-particles... not antimatter. Big difference. PET does NOT involve storing large amounts of anti-hydrogen in a semi-stable configuration.

This scientific advance involves assembling an actual anti-atom and storing it for a period of time. Yes, a blink of an eye... but it's a step forward.

I figured ya'll would be more interested. More important to debate the merits of a fictional technical book and randomly declare things "non canon" whatever the hell that means. :D
 
Yes, my point was that antimatter (particles) have been around, and in use, for some time now. Now, sure, this accomplishment of achieving "antimatter" is impressive but, I dunno, I'm not blown away by it. It was a foregone conclusion we'd do it considering we knew it was possible and how to do it. It was just a matter of doing it.

Call me when they build an energy-creation device with it.
 
We've secretly replaced CERN's dilithium crystals with New and Hyper-Energetic Folger's Crystals. Let's see if they notice...
 
DonIago said:
We've secretly replaced CERN's dilithium crystals with New and Hyper-Energetic Folger's Crystals. Let's see if they notice...
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:lol:

Funny you should say that... I've also been reading recently about CERN being very close to being able to describe the properties of dimensions beyond the four that we can observe.

From the Globe and Mail:

Scientists at the world's largest atom smasher said Monday they have succeeded in recreating conditions shortly after the Big Bang by switching the particles they use for collisions from protons to much heavier lead ions.
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I have to admit, though, I'm disgusted by some of the sentiments in the comments on the Globe's story. I find it hard to fathom that there are actually people who call this sort of thing "hocus pocus" - while sitting at a computer that wouldn't be possible without the advancement of physics.
 
Flashover said:
Actually, PET uses anti-particles... not antimatter. Big difference. PET does NOT involve storing large amounts of anti-hydrogen in a semi-stable configuration.

This scientific advance involves assembling an actual anti-atom and storing it for a period of time. Yes, a blink of an eye... but it's a step forward.

I figured ya'll would be more interested. More important to debate the merits of a fictional technical book and randomly declare things "non canon" whatever the hell that means. :D
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Well, really, what is there to say? They did it. Does it have a practical application at this point? no.

We don't talk much about all the "transporting" articles either.
 
The articles (if anyone read them) discuss not the creation of antimatter, but the replication and subsequent containment of them. It is that which is the topic of news - that they were successfully suspended for a fraction of a second in a magnetic field.
 
billcosby said:
The articles (if anyone read them) discuss not the creation of antimatter, but the replication and subsequent containment of them. It is that which is the topic of news - that they were successfully suspended for a fraction of a second in a magnetic field.
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Just long enough for Geordi to declare an imminent containment breach and barrel roll out of way, thank goodness.
 
Trekker4747 said:
Yes, my point was that antimatter (particles) have been around, and in use, for some time now. Now, sure, this accomplishment of achieving "antimatter" is impressive but, I dunno, I'm not blown away by it. It was a foregone conclusion we'd do it considering we knew it was possible and how to do it. It was just a matter of doing it.

Call me when they build an energy-creation device with it.
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And you still managed to miss the point, which was this:
billcosby said:
The articles (if anyone read them) discuss not the creation of antimatter, but the replication and subsequent containment of them. It is that which is the topic of news - that they were successfully suspended for a fraction of a second in a magnetic field.
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The creation of antimatter atoms isn't even really all that new - they first did that at CERN fifteen years ago (a fact which was alluded to in the excerpt from the BBC item quoted by the OP.) From the press release I linked above and link again here for convenience:
The antihydrogen programme goes back a long way. In 1995, the first nine atoms of man-made antihydrogen were produced at CERN. Then, in 2002, the ATHENA and ATRAP experiments showed that it was possible to produce antihydrogen in large quantities, opening up the possibility of conducting detailed studies. The new result from ALPHA is the latest step in this journey.
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What this most recent experiment showed was that it was possible both to produce antihydrogen atoms in quantity and to "trap" them, preventing them from being instantly annihilated the moment they came into existence. That annihilation was in this case only postponed by about a tenth of a second, but they demonstrated that it could be done; whether it blows you away or not, that's what the big deal is here.
 
DonIago said:
Ah yes, the LaForge Manuver. :)
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Star_Trek_-_In_Before_the_Lock.gif


:evil:
 
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