Monday, June 6, 2011

Capturing the Magic

...of anti-matter, that is. Some time ago, I read news that antimatter had been stored for two-tenths of a second. Now? Well, take a look.

Nearly seventeen minutes. That's approaching the edge of practical use. Part of me fears it will be weaponized...I certainly wouldn't want terrorists getting hold of it. The larger part thinks 'forty days to Mars'.

Then there's what we might learn about our universe from studying the stuff. How did the imbalance that allowed our kind of matter to exist occur? (bear in mind that anti-matter is, technically, whichever one you are not made of). We live in exciting...and scary times, but I will not be one of those who wants to put this genie back into the bottle.

We have it. Soon we will be working out what to do with it. And I would point out that the vast majority of nuclear fission caused by humans on this planet has been used for the generation of electricity not the destruction of life.

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