ANTIMATTER...THE MOST VOLATILE SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN

ANTIMATTER...THE MOST VOLATILE SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN

A single droplet of antimatter contains the explosive power of a ten kiloton bomb (Hiroshima.)Antimatter is extremely unstable and explodes when it comes in contact with absolutely anything (even air.)

Nonetheless, antimatter is now being produced at CERN in Switzerland, where anti-particles are accelerated around a 27-mile-long circular tunnel... traveling so fast that they complete the enormouscircle over 11,000 times per second.

Antimatter is routinely produced at CERN (more than 10 million particles per second.) The World-wide Web was invented at CERN. The world's largest magnet, weighing more thanthe Eiffel tower, is at CERN. CERN's biggest accelerator is 27 kilometers around, andparticles travelling near the speed of light lap it over 11,000 times each second.

In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter,where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed ofparticles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way thatan electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirelymatter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what mightbe possible if antimatter could be harnessed, but at this time the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process by which this asymmetry between particles and antiparticles developed is called baryogenesis

An antimatter weapon is a hypothetical device using antimatter as a power source, a propellant, or anexplosive for a weapon. Antimatter weapons do not currently exist as far as we know outside fiction (such as Star Trek's photon torpedo). The United States Air Force, however, has been interested in militaryuses—including destructive applications—of antimatter since the Cold War, when it began funding antimatter-relatedphysics research. The primary theoretical advantage of such a weapon is that antimatter and matter collisions convert 100% of mass into energy while comparatively a fusion reaction in a hydrogen bomb is on the order of 0.7%.

The History of Antimatter
The history of antimatter begins in 1928 with a young physicist named Paul Dirac and a strange mathematical equation...

The equation, in some way, predicted the existence of an antiworld identical to ours but made out of antimatter. Was this possible? if so, where and how could we search for antimatter?
From 1930, the search for the possible constituents of antimatter, antiparticles, began, and it has been the main influence behind a major scientific and technical evolution over the last 70 years.

CERN physicists Alvaro de Rújula and Rolf Landua answer your most frequently asked questions.
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• What can antimatter be used for?

There are several different uses for antimatter, the main one being for medical diagnostics where positrons are used to help identify different diseases with the Positron Emission Tomography (or PET scan). For other uses, we are still in the first phases of development and it's difficult to foresee what will happen in the next ten years!

• Can we use antimatter to propel a car or a spaceship?

In principle, yes, but in practice it is very difficult. You all know that the Star Trek Spaceship Enterprise flies around powered by antimatter. But in reality, making antimatter is so difficult that it is hard to foresee it ever being used as a propellant fuel. In order to propel a matter spacecraft weighing several tons up to the speed of light, you would need an equal amount of antimatter and, using the present technology, it would take millions and millions of years to produce a sufficient amount.
However, if you had a gram of antimatter, you could drive your car for about 100.000 years!

• Is it possible to build an antimatter weapon?

The military use of antimatter has the same limitations as spaceship propulsion: both would require a huge amount of antimatter, taking million of years to produce.
But if you define a weapon as something which shoots bullets, an accelerator could be considered an antiparticle gun! But we are talking about single particles, so the amount of energy you release when you shoot one of these "bullets" is so small you wouldn't even tickle your enemy.

• How do you store antimatter?

Antiparticles have either a positive or a negative electrical charge, so they can be stored in what we call a trap which has the appropriate configuration of electrical and magnetic fields to keep them confined in a small place. Of course, this has to be done in good vacuum to avoid collisions with matter particles.
Antiatoms are electrically neutral, but they have magnetic proprieties that can be used to keep them in "magnetic bottles".

• What does antimatter look like?

Matter and antimatter are identical. Looking at an object means seeing the photons coming from that object; however, photons come from both matter and antimatter. If there were a distant galaxy made out of antimatter, you couldn't distinguish it from a matter galaxy just by seeing the light from it.

How can you be so sure there is not antimatter around?

If there was antimatter here, around us, it would annihilate with matter and we would see light coming out. But we don't...
About the possibility of antimatter in space (antistars or antigalaxies), theorist have reasons to believe that the Universe is all made of matter. But we are not 100% sure, and that's way there are experiments, like AMS*, which are going to look for it.

• If the only difference between a particle and its antiparticle is the charge, how do you distinguish a neutron from an antineutron ?Neutrons are made of quarks, and antineutrons are made of antiquarks. Quarks and antiquarks have opposite charges, even though they sum up to zero in both cases.
And a very good way to recognize them is to put a neutron close to an antineutron and see how they immediately annihilate.

• What about antiphotons?

Photons have zero charge and do not contain inside objects that are charged, so a photon can not be distinguished from an antiphoton. Photon and antiphotons are the same thing, i.e. the photon is its own antiparticle.

• How do sound waves propagate in antimatter?

If there is a difference between matter and antimatter, it is very very tiny, that's why we are doing experiments here at CERN to investigate it. They are so similar that sound waves, that are vibrations of matter or antimatter, would be identical. An antimatter piano would sound exactly as a matter one.

• How does the gravitational field act on antimatter?

The gravitational force depends from the energy of an object, and since matter and antimatter have both positive energy, gravitation acts on them in the same way.
This means that an object made of matter and one made of antimatter would both stand on the floor, the latter one not flying off the sky...

• How mach antimatter can you make in one accelerator cycle?

Here at CERN we can produce 50 millions antiprotons in each cycle (about once a minute), that allows us to make a few hundred antihydrogen atoms.
The number could be 10 times higher in particular configurations of the accelerator. This sounds a lot, but expressed in grams it is a billionth of a gram in a year.

• How much does it cost to produce antimatter?

If we count on the production CERN has done over the last 10 years (about 1 billionth of a gram), it has cost a few hundred millions Swiss francs.

• How long will it take to have "new results" out of the AD?

The experiments took about three years to set up, and now that they are ready, it will take a year or two to understand the production of antihydrogen and how to contain it. Then the first studies can be done, where we compare atoms and antiatoms, and this will be two or three years from now.

AMS:'Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer'
About 15 billion years ago, matter and antimatter were created in a gigantic Big Bang in equal amounts, at least according to today's best theory. It is therefore surprising that our Earth, the solar system, and our galaxy (the Milky Way) do not contain any antimatter.

To explain this absence, scientists have come out with two possibilities: either antimatter completely disappeared during the history of universe, or matter and antimatter have been separated from each other to form different regions of the universe.

In the second case, we would be located in a region where only matter exists (or rather what we call 'matter'), but some antimatter coming from an 'anti' region outside our galaxy could still have a chance to reach us. This antimatter would be in the form of anti-nuclei (like anti-Helium, anti-Carbon, etc..) as opposed to lighter antiparticles (such as antiprotons) which are also created in high energy collisions between ordinary matter. To search for this extragalactic antimatter, the best way is to place a particle detector in space.

A world-wide collaboration of physicists, lead by Nobel prize laureate Prof. Samuel Ting of MIT, decided to build the 'Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer', or AMS. AMS is a high energy particle detector which will try to detect the passage of such very small amounts of antimatter, while orbiting at an altitude of a few hundred kilometers above the atmosphere.

Some of the main challenges of the project are very technical: having to be carried on the Space Shuttle, each component of the apparatus has to be miniaturized as much as possible to keep the total volume to a maximum of 10 cubic meters and the weight to a maximum of 3 tons (a typical high energy apparatus at LEP with the similar detecting principles is about 1000 cubic meters in volume and 100 tons in weight).

Even more important is the power consumption: AMS should not need more than 2 kW (kilowatts) of electricity, provided by the solar panels of the Space Station. And 2kW is less than what a kitchen oven needs!

Academician Lomonosov-Russian floating nuclear power station

Floating nuclear power stations are vessels projected by the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency that present self-contained, low-capacity, floating nuclear power plants, each powered by two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactorsS
The stations are to be mass-built at ship-building facilities and then towed to the destination point in coastal waters near a city, a town or an industrial enterprise. Each vessel would then provide up to 70 MWWattof electrical or 300 MW of heat energy thatare enough for a city with population of 200,000 people. It could also be modified as a desalination plant producing 240,000 cubic meters of fresh water a day

Name:Academician Lomonosov
Namesake:Mikhail Lomonosov
Operator:Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency
Port of Registry:Russia
Builder:Baltic Shipyard
Cost:US$336 million (projected)
Laid down:15 April 15 2007
Launched:Planned for 2010

Shipyard:Sevmash
Displacement:21,500 tonnes
Length:144 meters
Beam:30 meters
Powerplant :2 modified KLT-40S Nuclear Reactors (Ice breaker type), 70 MW electric or 300 MW heat power
Planned Cost :$336 million

Fueling

The plant needs to be refueled every three years while saving up to 200,000 metric tons of coal and 100,000 tons of fuel oil a year. The reactors are supposed to have a lifespan of 40 years. Every 12 years the whole plant will be towed home and overhauled at the wharf where it was constructed. The disposal of the nuclear waste will be organized by the manufacturer and supported by the infrastructure of the Russian nuclear industry. Thus, virtually no radiation traces are expected at the place where the power station produced its energy.

Safety

Environmental groups and nuclear experts are concerned that floating plants will be more vulnerable to accidents and terrorism than land-based stations. They point to a history of naval and nuclear accidents in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Russia does have 50 years of experience operating a fleet of nuclear powered icebreakers that are also used for scientific and Arctic tourism expeditions. The Russians have commented that a nuclear reactor that sinks, such as the similar reactor involved in the Kursk explosion, can be raised and probably put back into operation.At this time it is not known what, if any, containment structure or associated missile shield will be built on the ship. The manufacturers believe that an airliner striking the ship would not destroy the reactor. According to MosNews, a Russian news outlet, there is no way an airliner striking the ship would destroy the reactor.

Bushidō-"Way of the Warrior"

Bushidō ,meaning "Way of the Warrior", is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honour until death. Born of two main influences, the violent existence of the samurai was tempered by the wisdom and serenity of Confucianism and Buddhism. Bushidō developed between the 9th and 12th centuries and numerous translated documents dating from the 12th to 16th centuries demonstrate its wide influence across the whole of Japan

I. Rectitude or Justice The code teaches that a Samurai knows how one must decide upon an important thing and act appropriately. It is the quality of reasoning.

II. Courage that is put in action for the sake of good is worthy of respect.

III. Benevolence was expected as an integral part of a man of honour.

IV. Politeness was an essential attribute. It is to be a part of every true Samurai of Japan.

V.Honesty and Sincerity Greed for money was considered an immoral and lowly quality. The Samurais lived a Spartan life and abstained from seeking money.

VI. Honor was above everything. A Samurai lived a life of honor and anything that affected his honor affected him personally.

VII. Loyalty The Samurais were extremely loyal to their leaders.VIII. Character and Self-Control The Bushido teaches men to live a life of moral standards. Character is essential for the warrior and equally for the common man.

The rules of the code were those of politeness and respect. It taught to the world, discipline and unfailing morals that will last forever.

Nemawashi

In Japanese culture Nemawashi is an informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides. The word means preparing the soil for transplanting a tree from one area to another, so that it will live. Nemawashi in business is preparing people’s minds to accept an idea. It is consensus building.The Japanese have very different ways of conducting business meeting. Before a formal meeting starts, participants have already drawn conclusions regarding information to be presented at the meeting. This system was developed to avoid discrepancies, and gain agreement from everyone in advance, when making a decision in formal meeting. It is also to keep the relationship harmonious. Nemawashi is best used to let people of differing opinions have time to adjust their opinions. When the principles of nemawashi are put into effect first, people have the time to adjust opinions beforehand without wasting time. The main fear people have of nemawashi is its use in politics. People are worried that decisions are sometimes made behind the scenes, instead of out in the open. It is therefore seen as an undemocratic process.

The Art of Nemawashi

Nemawashi is the building of support for a project through advance communication and consensus. The Japanese term nemawashi (根回し) comes from "to dig around the roots" in order to prepare a plant for transplant. Without proper nemawashi, a bonsai tree transplanted to new soil may die.

Many people first hear of nemawashi in the context of Hoshin Kanri (policy deployment) which is a fact-based approach to planning and tracking breakthrough objectives. As awareness of the Toyota Way and its elements become more mainstream, the mention of nemawashi as a management behavior has increased.

In business how many projects die because ideas were transplanted to minds that were not prepared to nurture them? The only place I can think of in the U.S. where nemawashi is practiced regularly is in Congress, where the passage of laws requires the support of a certain number of votes and lawmakers spend time and effort to gain support for their ideas.

Like much of kaizen, there's nothing mysterious about nemawashi. It's not a science (though you could take a scientific approach) or a 12-step process. If you have a project that requires decision and support, here's how to get started with the art of nemawashi:

Create the project document. What is the current condition? What are the root causes? What is it costing us to do business this way? What are possible countermeasures? Tip: Fit this on one page, even if it's a big piece of paper (A3 size).

Review the project document with people. Do this in person (in many cultures doing this individually will yield better results than review in groups). Ask each person if they understand the current condition, the root causes and the actions proposed. If you are a leader, prepare to listen and teach but resist the tempation to justify or explain.Tip: Send the project description to people in advance so they can review it and prepare for your face to face meeting.

Rewrite the project document. At this stage the document it is no longer a proposal as such but a summary of what has already been agreed by those who influence and make decisions in the organization.Tip: Keep the original document hard copy with your notes to show the various changes and inputs you gained from people throughout the nemawashi process. Until nemawashi becomes second nature this "draft" document will help people visualize how nemawashi works and how their ideas and inputs were valued.

Meet to decide formally to support the project. This should take less than an hour, including time for questions and clarifications.Tip: If at first you fail to gain smooth agreement at this meeting, spin the PDCA cycle and learn why. Did you miss certain people in the nemawashi process? Was the project document unclear? Did the nemawashi process go on too long so that priorities changed?

There are three main benefits to the nemawashi process:

1) You will have a better understanding of the current condition as people challenge the initial assumptions and results of root cause analysis

2) It creates ownership for the project because others have had a chance to influence and shape it. People support what they create.

3) Time waste in meetings is eliminated or replaced with time doing nemawashi.

Nemawashi is best done in the project design phase or Plan phase of PDCA. How long should this process take? Probably as long as you need to make sure the project will be successfully transplanted in the minds of the people who have the ability to nurture or neglect it. The more that people in positions to influence significant change practice nemawashi, the greater the chance of success will be for these changes.