by William Logan

Created on: October 04, 2009

Perhaps nothing in the entire lexicon of actual science invokes more vivid futuristic images than the term antimatter. After all, antimatter was the fuel of choice for all of Starfleet Command and the Starship Enterprise in particular. In the new novel "Angels and Demons" a bomb is created from antimatter stolen from CERN, and stories of an endless supply of clean energy are common. Unfortunately, the truth throws a big wet blanket on our imaginations.

Matter and antimatter are mirror images of each other. An electron and positron are identical in every measurable way but have opposite electric charge. When the two come into contact they annihilate each other, converting all their mass into energy in a flash. Mass and energy are different manifestations of the same thing and are related by Albert Einstein's famous equation E=MC2. So, since "c" is the speed of light and is 2.9x108 m/s and "c2" is 8.4x1016, when matter and antimatter collide the amount of energy released is enormous. One single gram of matter could supply all the energy needs of an average town for a day.

In 1929, as Paul Dirac completed his set of equations describing the electron, he was puzzled by the quadratic (containing a squared variable) component of his creation. This gave the equations two sets of equally valid solutions, one positive and one negative. For Dirac, this meant that either he had committed an error in constructing his equations, the quadratic was an anomalous mathematical fluke, or that some component of the properties of an electron was reversible. He considered the possibility of an electron with a negative energy and initially dismissed the idea as it made no sense in classical physics, but the hunt for antimatter was underway.

Two years after the discovery of high energy cosmic rays in 1930 physicist Carl Anderson was observing their behavior in a cloud chamber when he noticed a particle that behaved like "something positively charged with the same mass as an electron". He ultimately realized that he was watching an antimatter electron, which he named the positron. With the construction of increasingly powerful cyclotrons and the birth of "high energy physics" in the 1950's the discovery of the antielectron was followed by the antiproton and antineutron. Recently, as scientists have developed ways to trap and control antiparticles, the antideuteron nucleus was formed by combining an antiproton and antineutron and antiatoms were finally made when antielectrons were

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