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Antimatter gets positive vibe |
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The crew of the Starship Enterprise were famous for skin-tight uniforms and immaculate hair-dos but they were clued up on high-tech space travel too. Their beloved craft was capable of the superluminal 'Warp Drive' speeds which shot them from one galaxy to another.
Science fiction it might have been, but there is a school of thought that believes elements of the Star Trek fantasy will come true. Some say that future spacecraft will travel much faster than they do today, fuelled by engines using immense energy derived from antimatter.
NASA is examining the potentially crucial role antimatter may play in the future of human space travel, while other research agencies around the world are examining more day-to-day applications of the substance including delivering medicine and safely storing nuclear waste.
Among these antimatter examiners is the new $10 million Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Antimatter-Matter Studies (CAMS), which opens later this year and will put Australia at the forefront of global antimatter research.
So, what is this mysterious antimatter and how can it help us to 'boldly go where no man has gone before'?
The simplest explanation is that antimatter consists of particles similar to matter - the substance of which most of our world is made - but of opposite electrical charge. Every electron (a minute, charged particle) has an 'antiparticle' which has the same mass but a positive electrical charge - the opposite of the electron's negative charge.
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'Professor Steven Buckman (right), Director of the Centre, and Dr James Sullivan, responsible for the design and construction of the positron beamline.'
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In 1932 Carl David Anderson observed this new particle experimentally (after it had been earlier theorised by Paul Dirac in 1930) and it was named the 'positron', the first known example of antimatter. Positrons are produced in the decay of some radioactive nuclei.
Positrons also form a unique and tenuous atom known as positronium, which lies at the heart of many of the antimatter applications in society.
According to Professor Stephen Buckman, Associate Director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University, and Interim Director of CAMS, while antimatter is interesting and useful it takes some careful handling.
"The laws of physics tell us that matter and antimatter were most likely created in equal amounts at the time of the 'Big Bang' or creation of the Universe," he said.
"Positrons are widely used in analysing materials and in medical applications such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET). However, in the latter case little is known about the interactions between positrons and the cells of the human body," said Stephen. "CAMS will provide, for the first time, detailed measurements of fundamental positron interactions with bio-molecules, molecules as simple as water, and as complex as DNA."
However, he added we should think ourselves lucky we live in a world made of matter in which there is (strangely) very little antimatter.
"Particles and their antiparticles annihilate each other when they are bought together, creating energy, usually in the form of gamma rays. If antimatter was more abundant in our world we would have gone up in a puff of photons a long time ago," he said.
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