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Physicists Build Bigger 'Bottles' For Antimatter

intellitech writes "Once regarded as the stuff of science fiction, antimatter — the mirror image of the ordinary matter in our observable universe — is now the focus of laboratory studies around the world. While physicists routinely produce antimatter with radioisotopes and particle colliders, cooling these antiparticles and containing them for any length of time is another story. Clifford Surko, a professor of physics at UC San Diego, who is constructing what he hopes will be the world's largest antimatter container, said physicists have recently developed new methods to make special states of antimatter in which they can create large clouds of antiparticles, compress them and make specially tailored beams for a variety of uses."

4 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Re:'science fiction'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... the novel "Angels and Daemons"...

    I see someone's posting from work :)

  2. Re:Idiots. by Shemmie · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have a bag of sugar - we're half way there!

  3. Message from the "Other" matter. by rocker_wannabe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Speaking for the antimatter, I believe that there is a misconception. We don't appreciate being called the "anti" matter. We are the other-matter to you. From our perspective, you are the antimatter! You don't like it very much when someone calls YOU antimatter do you. I wish we could all just get along but it was not meant to be. We will continue to annihilate any of you that try to contact us. Please! Just leave us alone!!!!

    Thank You

    --
    "Meaningless!, Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless!"
  4. The Perils of Modern Living by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well up above the tropostrata
      There is a region stark and stellar
      Where, on a streak of anti-matter
      Lived Dr. Edward Anti-Teller.

      Remote from Fusion's origin,
      He lived unguessed and unawares
      With all his antikith and kin,
      And kept macassars on his chairs.

      One morning, idling by the sea,
      He spied a tin of monstrous girth
      That bore three letters: A. E. C.
      Out stepped a visitor from Earth.

      Then, shouting gladly o'er the sands,
      Met two who in their alien ways
      Were like as lentils. Their right hands
      Clasped, and the rest was gamma rays.
    -- Harold P Furth

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear