Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Creating antimatter.

When we try to do it, it costs billions of dollars.

Yet, as with so many 'hard' things, nature does it every day.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3955/thunderstorms-create-beams-antimatter

These beams are pretty small and they don't last very long. Another form of lightning, one might argue. Another cause for the sense of energy, perhaps, one gets from a big storm...although that is more likely that even humans have a slight sense for electrical fields.

Studying this phenomenon might give us new angles on the commercial creation of antimatter to, say, power interplanetary ships. It also ties together with the capability of magnetic fields to potentially contain this dangerous and volatile substance. What it does not help answer is why there was an imbalance between matter and antimatter during the Big Bang...the very imbalance that allows us to exist.

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