FINALLY! Warp speed within our grasp!

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-958719.html">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-958719.html</a><br /><br />Ok, maybe I am being a bit optimistic, but this is the stuff of science fiction. "By corralling clouds of antimatter particles in a cylindrical chamber laced with detectors and electric and magnetic fields, the physicists assembled anti-hydrogen atoms, the looking glass equivalent of hydrogen, the most simple atom in nature. Whereas hydrogen consists of a positively charged proton circled by a negatively charged electron, in anti-hydrogen the proton's counterpart, a negatively charged anti-proton, is circled by an anti-electron, otherwise known as a positron. They then observed the flashes of energy when the new anti-hydrogen atoms annihilated themselves in collisions with ordinary matter in the walls of the chamber."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2002/20020922-antimatter.jpg" /><br /><br />Next thing you know, we'll be crawling through Jeffries tubes aligning the EPS conduits to ensure the Bussard Collectors are operating within .92 of specs. The image is from <a href="http://www.stinsv.com">Star Trek in Sound and Vision</a>.

[rubberdemon]

Alas, I read in a related article that it takes something like 10,000 times more energy to make antimatter than you can get out of it. I have a feeling that this might stay in the realm of science fiction longer than most of us will be around...

[mookie123]

Well. is not like they know how to contain the anti hydrogen yet. The practiclaly made the antihydrogen and watch it explodes after touching matter. The first person who can do this will be rich beyond imagination. (imagine boundless energy)

Of course the Army is already thinking about harvesting positron as a weapon energy, but they back down after seeing the tecnical intricacy and the cost with current technology.

[Ed Hansberry]

Well. is not like they know how to contain the anti hydrogen yet.
Oh come on. We all know you use a magnetic containment field. :roll:

:lol:

[bandersnatch]

Alas...the "magnetic containment field" was one of Star Trek's booboos. Anti hydrogen, like all atoms, has a neutral charge. Now, if you just leave it as a soup of anti protons, now we're talkin'! :D

[Ed Hansberry]

Anti hydrogen, like all atoms, has a neutral charge.
Not when you focus them with di-lithium crystals. (you are not getting into the spirit of this thread. :wink: )

[mookie123]

focusing atoms? so far we only able to focus, as in focusing stream of particle in coherent wave, a very limited type of atoms. Hydrogen isn't one of them most are Alkally ion vapor. And what's worst only until recently this "stream" of atoms are only blob and spurt that has to go in the direction of gravity. It more like dripping rather than shining light stream like Laser that you can focus into a crystal.

Well ok is not like we are making a warp drive here.... lol

[LarDude]

Well. is not like they know how to contain the anti hydrogen yet.
Oh come on. We all know you use a magnetic containment field. :roll:

:lol:

Reality is often stranger (more exciting) than SciFi; humans are an ingenious lot:

1) "Meta-stable" states of exotic atoms (Helium-4 with an electron replaced by an anti-proton at the
Low-Energy Antiproton Ring at CERN).

2) Neutral Atom Traps (in countless labs all over the world) use six
polarized laser beams (+x,-x,+y,-y,+z,-z) to slow down, trap and then move or otherwise manipulate neutral atoms.

[krisbrown]

We'll, who'd have guessed there were so many Quantum physicists reading this boards just waiting for their chance to spring into action.

[LarDude]

We'll, who'd have guessed there were so many Quantum physicists reading this boards just waiting for their chance to spring into action.

Whoops! :oops:
Pardon me while I give the propeller on my cap another spin.

[Pony99CA]

Ok, maybe I am being a bit optimistic, but this is the stuff of science fiction. "By corralling clouds of antimatter particles in a cylindrical chamber laced with detectors and electric and magnetic fields, the physicists assembled anti-hydrogen atoms, the looking glass equivalent of hydrogen, the most simple atom in nature. Whereas hydrogen consists of a positively charged proton circled by a negatively charged electron, in anti-hydrogen the proton's counterpart, a negatively charged anti-proton, is circled by an anti-electron, otherwise known as a positron. They then observed the flashes of energy when the new anti-hydrogen atoms annihilated themselves in collisions with ordinary matter in the walls of the chamber."

We should ban this research immediately. Consider the nightmare if someone produces an anti-Ed. :lol:

&lt;ducking>

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Alas...the "magnetic containment field" was one of Star Trek's booboos. Anti hydrogen, like all atoms, has a neutral charge. Now, if you just leave it as a soup of anti protons, now we're talkin'! :D
Why did Star Trek get it wrong? They used "anti-matter", but I don't recall them ever saying it was anti-hydrogen (or anything else). Anti-protons and positrons are considered anti-matter, I think (although "matter" is pushing it).

Also, didn't the Tokamak nuclear fusion experiments rely on a "magnetic bottle"? I suppose that if they were just fusing protons into hydrogen nucleii, that would make sense.

Steve

[Ed Hansberry]

We should ban this research immediately. Consider the nightmare if someone produces an anti-Ed. :lol:

Bizarro Ed.

Isn't it amazing you can tie just about any thread to a Seinfeld episide?

[Robotbeat]

Actually, over five years ago I heard that they made the first anti-hydrogen atoms. This isn't going to be a boundless energy source, but it is a very dense one, though. In fact, it is about twice as efficient of an energy source than is usually considered possible, since it annhilates both the matter and the anti-matter. Such an energy source would be good for making nano-probes into suicide bombers for the military. (That's a good idea... Oh great... I opened a can of worms...)

Such an energy source would also be useful for interstellar travel, since you generally want to take the fuel with you, the less fuel you take the better. Of course, this is at least two hundred years in the future (that is extremely optimistic, if you look at how much energy it would take to fuel interstellar travel). More likely, however, an easier way to travel to other planetary systems will be discovered/developed (that's my opinion, anyways). Personally, I don't think that any idea that we think is probable right now will be what we will use for such a purpose. Like fusion power. 200 years ago, no one would have thought that such an immensely powerful weapon (one that has the ability to kill most of the people on earth in a few hours and make the place unlivable--keep in mind that this is the absolute worst possible case and would not be likely to happen even in the event of an all-out nuclear war) could be made from the power inside of the atom, which then was hardly more than a fantasy dreamed up by some Greek philosopher/theorist (what was his name?).

[Underwater Mike]

:idea:

I have a theory that the iPAQ -- by either design or happenstance -- is actually a poorly performing antimatter collection and storage device. The containment field inside the iPAQ must leak, causing a dribble of antimatter to flow randomly throughout the device, annihilating whatever components it contacts.

That would explain why I've had to use my Carepaq six times for totally unrelated failures!