Well, sorta.

Link to LLNL

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Can we 'store' anti-matter yet? You know, keep it until we need it?

No, I´m affraid. AFAIK, storing anti-matter poses a huge challenge. The particles created at the LL lab are destroyed almost immediately by contact with normal matter.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

The Paul Harvey News (national radio US, perhaps other countries, an unskeptical news source, Jr. reading today) I think had this story described as creating "black holes in the lab". The closing tag was something loosely along the lines of the black holes featuring everything but the gravity, which if present would mean Earth would no longer exist. Yeah, sure.

It's hard to tell if this is the story because they had so much wrong -- regardless of what story they were describing. It's the only current news item I see searching for "black holes" and "laser", two terms I know the story included. But, Paul Harvey News has fooled me before, sometimes reporting "news" that is weeks old, so maybe they were thnking of some other lab's story.

Anyway, when can I go to my local gun store and get a positron beam weapon? Sounds like fun!

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not really,
Fermilab and CERN have been using accelerators for making, storing and colliding antimatter for over twenty years.

while it is true that not much Antimatter is produced, and the cost of the production is really high, Antimatter is in fact stored in vacuum and magnetic confinement fields this keeps the antimatter from coming in contact with normal matter.

http://www.matter-antimatter.com/antimatter_storage.htm
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29may_1m.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penning_trap
http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_gp_tp.html#antim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penning_trap
http://www.engr.psu.edu/antimatter/

http://van.physics.uiuc.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1173

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-work in progress--

Well, I was referring to the amount needed to fuel 01101001´s positron beam weapon.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Well that is interesting,
does that violate causality?

it seems to me that your statement happened before 01101001 comment about the positron weapon


Today, 02:25 PM: Post 3
Today, 03:13 PM: Post 4
LOL

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-work in progress--

One problem with nitpickings is that it takes time to clarify things, and you [me, in this case] end up posing as an idiot.

I was referring to the fact that great amounts of AM can´t be stored with current tech, at reasonable costs. I´m perfectly aware of the subject the page you linked describes. I used 01101001´s post in an [lame] attempt to make some humor.

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Is that the maximum length of time it can be stored then? Several days? No other mention of duration I could find. Because several days doesn't give you enough time to blow things up.

This abstract talks of storing antiprotons for 2 months.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

I didn't hear the story, but from the description, it sounds like this:

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/02...uk-laboratory/

A story from many months ago, and, of course, doesn't involve a real black hole.

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Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Bingo. There were two beams involved in today's Paul Harvey News story. That's got to be it. It's a better fit. They got me again with old news. Thanks.

I've either got to listen closer to that particular source -- or not listen at all. Hey, it almost always comes over my headset while I'm running. If I retune to something more sensical, I might trip and fall and nearly die. And sue them, and get fabulously wealthy off the pain and suffering and punitive damages. Yeah. So, I could afford that positron beam gun. Aha, a plan...

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Quote from original story," On their way [through the gold target], the electrons interact with the gold nuclei, which serve as a catalyst to create positrons."

A "catalyst"?
Shurley shome mishtake?
That's simplifying complex science to a simpleton level.

John

Good post, Sabiang....most folks ARE unaware that antimatter storage is well developed as you pointed out .....and these references give some good background ...
Positrons are regularly used in medical PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography) and the like.

BTW, also not so well known is the fact that the Pentagon in the 1980's was interested in developing antibeam weapons, especially space based ..and even antimatter bombs which had the perceived advantage of small size and being 'clean' .....you don't hear much about it today because of the 'political correctness' stuff...but it is still going on.


Also, it may interest you that the largest known antimatter 'beam' is actually spueing out from (close to) the galactic center and evidenced by a large cloud of antimatter (gamma spectrum) about 10,000 L.Y. across around the galactic center. Only recently has its apparent source been tied to x-ray binaries that cluster in that vicinity.....
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/...er_binary.html

G^2
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I don't think I'd call it "well developed." You might get the equivalent of a firecracker out of the number of anti-protons you can store for a bit (depending on how good a vacuum you have), but that's about it.

Anti-particle beam weapons? References please.

You don't hear about it because it's highly impractical. For even a small yield, you would need to produce vastly more anti-matter than we can today, you would need a method for long term, safe storage that has never been demonstrated and you would need to be able to make it explode effectively. If you had a frozen ball of anti-hydrogen, and let (say) air reach it, there would be intense radiation pressure which would slow the reaction down. It would be intensely hot but it wouldn't make for a good explosion. So along with everything else, you would need to insure good matter/anti-matter mixing for an explosion.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

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The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Well actually, the positrons in PET scans come from the radioactive isotopes attached to glucose molecules. The glucose is ingested and condenses in the brain, tumors, and a few other areas, and the radioactive isotopes go through beta decay, releasing a positron that annihilates with an electron from the surroundings. The antimatter is produced within the body and no production or storage of it is necessary. Pretty nifty really.

This is true. Perhaps not a good example Gsquare. Perhaps this shows that using precursors might be a better idea. But then we'd need a method that gives a very high rate of production, (precursor ---> positron), on demand.