Antimatter atoms have been trapped for the first time, scientists say.

Researchers at Cern, home of the LHC, have held 38 antihydrogen atoms in place, each for a fraction of a second.

While antihydrogen has been produced before, it is instantly destroyed in a flash of light when it encounters normal matter.

The team, reporting in Nature, says the ability to study such antimatter atoms will allow previously impossible tests of fundamental tenets of physics.

Continued here...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11773791

It's great to have news about something that really is awesome, in the truest sense of that overused word. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Yes. This is AWESOME.

On BBC radio 4 tonight they explained:

Antimatter is like matter, only is a negative version of it. When matter and antimatter meet, they cancel and you're left with nothing.

Hmmmmmm

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/va ... 09610.html

for those that have access

twistor59 wrote:On BBC radio 4 tonight they explained:

Antimatter is like matter, only is a negative version of it. When matter and antimatter meet, they cancel and you're left with nothing.

Hmmmmmm

Here's a testable prediction.

By tomorrow somebody will have mentally translated "negative version" into "bad version". If we're lucky, they will even conclude it is evil, and that scientists should be prevented from dabbling with it.

And we have just discovered anti-mind: The Tea-bagger.

katja z wrote:

By tomorrow somebody will have mentally translated "negative version" into "bad version". If we're lucky, they will even conclude it is evil, and that scientists should be prevented from dabbling with it.

Evil Devil Particles of Satan!
Stop the Anti-Chri, er Matter!

j x

Cool.

twistor59 wrote:On BBC radio 4 tonight they explained:

Antimatter is like matter, only is a negative version of it. When matter and antimatter meet, they cancel and you're left with nothing.

Hmmmmmm

I thought it gave something off when this happens, and that's how they were able to tell how much matter/antimatter meeting was done in the early universe?

I thought when matter and antimatter met they er did not get on and created a large amount of free energy?

On an unrelated note --
http://ianoneill.posterous.com/ikeas-la ... n-collider

j x

@ sityl and Jerome:

Yes, in this case, even Dan Brown was more accurate than the BBC science journalists.

twistor59 wrote:Antimatter is like matter, only is a negative version of it. When matter and antimatter meet, they cancel and you're left with nothing.

Actually, you're left with a colossal amount of energy. To be left with nothing, you'd need negative mass, which is a whole other thing entirely - and way cooler, if it turns out to exist.

But still, this is definitely a sign that the Evil Scientists(TM) are trying to bring about the apocalypse. Today, they are making anti-hydrogen, but tomorrow, they'll be making anti-water, and then anti-proteins, and before we know it, they'll be putting them all together to build the anti-Christ!

twistor59 wrote:On BBC radio 4 tonight they explained:

Antimatter is like matter, only is a negative version of it. When matter and antimatter meet, they cancel and you're left with nothing.

Hmmmmmm

Not exactly true. You are left with energy in the form of photons. In fact, you are left with the same amount of energy as their masses accelerated to the speed of light squared. E=mc2

Edit: Arcanyn beat me to it by 3 minutes.

Arcanyn wrote:But still, this is definitely a sign that the Evil Scientists(TM) are trying to bring about the apocalypse. Today, they are making anti-hydrogen, but tomorrow, they'll be making anti-water, and then anti-proteins, and before we know it, they'll be putting them all together to build the anti-Christ!

The Italians have already developed the antipasto. I just had some just yesterday.

Arcanyn wrote:To be left with nothing, you'd need negative mass, which is a whole other thing entirely - and way cooler, if it turns out to exist.

Negative energy exists. There is no reason not to believe that its solid counterpart exists as well.

Now all we need are some dilithium crystals.

Just saw the the article on Yahoo!, myself. Beat me to the post.

Great news! Well done, Cern nerds!

So is anti matter "something". I really dont know how else to phrase that question.