Antimatter has been transported for the first time
249 points - today at 2:56 PM
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voidUpdate today at 3:41 PM
If containment was to fail, it the total energy released would have been approximately 2.766 * 10 ^ -8 J, so it wasn't particularly dangerous
stevenalowe today at 7:16 PM
Unclear on the size of the apparatus require to secure the 92 anti-protons - did it occupy the entire truck?
swiftcoder today at 4:01 PM
I definitely was expecting "transported" to be some kind of teleportation when I clicked this link. Too much sci-fi!
diwank today at 6:53 PM
Angels & Demons anyone?
csense today at 4:31 PM
From a layman's point of view antimatter seems like an ideal spacecraft fuel. It's as energy dense as E = mc^2 allows, and if you have infrastructure to make it, the only input you need to produce it is electricity.
Being able to transport it seems like an important piece of that puzzle.
Production and storage would need to be scaled by many orders of magnitude, but that's merely an engineering problem...right?
AStrangeMorrow today at 5:22 PM
I am curious about how much energy needs to be expanded to contain the anti-matter. Say it the matter/anti-matter is to be used for propulsion/energy generation can we reach a threshold were we are actually energy positive
brumbelow today at 3:52 PM
“Antimatter in a truck” is great headline material, but the actual advance is portable precision instrumentation.
CERN can make/store the antiprotons, but not measure them as cleanly as they want because the facility itself introduces tiny magnetic fluctuations. So this is really a story about moving the sample to a quieter lab, not moving toward sci-fi antimatter batteries... for now
aftbit today at 4:28 PM
How could we make enough antimatter to do something useful? Would we need to go hang out near the sun or deorbit Jupiter's moons with superconducting coils to get enough energy?
nout today at 5:10 PM
I was once transporting antipasti and no one wrote HN post about it :(
brendanfinan today at 4:04 PM
luc_ today at 3:52 PM
Setting the plot for Angels and Demons... :D
Mirror: https://archive.ph/JkeMp
eternauta3k today at 4:19 PM
What would a universe with equal amounts of matter and antimatter look like?
Sardtok today at 4:38 PM
Sounds like the start of research ending in antimatter bombs.
alansaber today at 3:49 PM
Only 92 antiprotons but still an exciting feat
cozzyd today at 4:39 PM
pssh, antineutrinos are transported all the time!
d--b today at 5:00 PM
Every time I read one of these, I am amazed by how much stuff superconductivity allows, and how limited we are because it needs ultra low temperatures.
ck2 today at 6:41 PM
antimatter is not what the average person thinks it is from science-fiction
https://www.youtube.com/@pbsspacetime/search?query=antimatte...
fatbird today at 4:01 PM
Imagine the poor post-doc in the back of the truck, no seatbelt, watching and noting anything going on, while the driver is doing donuts in a parking lot to really stress-test the magnetic containment.
deleted today at 3:37 PM
chuckadams today at 3:52 PM
Tell me this involved dilithium crystals. Please tell me this involved dilithium, I want to live in Gene's future.
ozim today at 4:08 PM
Stop, driver should have license for hauling antimatter and as far as I believe no one is giving those out. That’s major offense in trucking industry.
bitbytebane today at 3:50 PM
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dcuthbertson today at 7:52 PM
Imagine your own, household matter/antimatter reaction chamber. I can hardly wait for antimatter to be transported through pipes underground along side water mains, natural gas pipes, and sewer connections.