• Question: Do you think we will ever be able to discover and store antimatter?

    Asked by anon-208737 to Tori, Titus, Stuart, Hannah, Gill, Alessandro on 1 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Hannah Dalgleish

      Hannah Dalgleish answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      The exciting thing is that we actually have already done this! This is done at CERN for example (https://home.cern/science/accelerators/antiproton-decelerator), but it’s extremely expensive so it’s not really possible to go and buy it in the shops (yet). 😉

      The real mystery is why did the Big Bang create so much more matter than antimatter? When the same particle of matter and antimatter meet, they cancel each other out and disappear, so luckily for us the Big Bang didn’t create them in equal amounts, otherwise we wouldn’t exist!

    • Photo: Gill Harrison

      Gill Harrison answered on 1 Mar 2019:

      I’m glad Hannah has answered that as it’s way outside of my area of practice, phew!

    • Photo: Titus Mutwiri

      Titus Mutwiri answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      This is not my area but I am somewhat certain that anything is possible with time, investment and collaboration in conducting discoveries by the leading global researchers of antimatter. I think what should worry us more is if the world can continually afford such investments at this time and for how long and for what purpose and justification. My answer is yes but by when and why?

    • Photo: Stuart Higgins

      Stuart Higgins answered on 5 Mar 2019:

      It is really tough because antimatter keeps reacting with matter so you’d need to put the antimatter in antimatter box, but then you’d need to put that antimatter in another antimatter box…. But Hannah’s totally right, it’s already been discovered and made in very small quantities, so maybe one day we’ll be able to make more.

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