this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
136 points (100.0% liked)

Science

6873 readers
67 users here now

General discussions about "science" itself

Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:

https://lemmy.ml/c/science

https://beehaw.org/c/science

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

For the first time in the world, antimatter is being transported by road at CERN in Geneva. The test carried out on Tuesday at the nuclear research centre is intended to prove that the antiparticles can be transported safely.

all 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] aburrito@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

This is super cool. So it was anywhere from 100-1k anti protons transported 5 km, and my fave bit from the article

According to CERN, if the trap fails during transport, the energy released will be around one millionth of a joule – about as much as it takes to press a keyboard key.

Neat!

[–] CucumberFetish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

That is an insane amount of energy for something so little

[–] aburrito@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago

Oh definitely. I’m not a physicist but I’m pretty sure the matter-anti matter reaction is like near perfect efficiency right? So all of those particles plus the non anti pairs converted virtually entirely to energy, that’s a lot

Question for any particle physicists if one stumbles on this thread, iirc most of the mass in hadrons is from the internal QCD interactions, so is that reaction’s energy also largely from the quark anti-quark interactions? If so I mean, trying to comprehend the quarks interacting between the particles in the reaction twists my brain somehow

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

which direction did they design it to fail tho

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What type of key switch though?

[–] aburrito@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago

Asking the important questions

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago

People will door dash anything

[–] greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo 14 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What does the transport safety square look like for a truck shifting anti-matter?

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] greyscale@lemmy.grey.ooo 3 points 13 hours ago

This is my favourite I've seen so far.

[–] Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] 7toed@midwest.social 4 points 1 day ago

I adore how the rest of the fire diamond has absolutely no purpose and can be omitted

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

In the US it would just be for the compressed refrigeration gasses (if any), likely 2-1963. If you felt cheeky you might have a Class 7 plaquard (radiation) too, but you'd probably get in trouble for incorrectly labeling your cargo since 100 anti-protons isn't exactly a radiological threat.

[–] desra@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago

Anyone remember the weasel?

If we keep this up, we’ll never reach Steins Gate.

[–] Masse022@piefed.ca -4 points 1 day ago (4 children)

So a potentially portable black hole?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Everyone is saying no, I want to explain why.

Black holes are a gravitational phenomenon. Basically too much mass in too small of an area distorts spacetime so heavily it prevents even light from escaping, though it does emit hawking radiation.

Antimatter is on the other hand a concept relating to a different fundamental force: electroweak interaction. Antimatter can be summed up as matter with the opposite charge. In an anti carbon 6 you'll find six anti protons (negatively charged particles the same size as protons and made of antiquarks), six anti neutrons (neutrons made of antiquarks), and orbiting around it will be six positrons (basically electrons but positive). It will have the exact same mass as a regular C^6.

Antimatter is relatively common these days, being produced in most major hospitals to be used as part of PET scans. It can be weaponized in theory, but volatility and volume to cost and transportability say it's unlikely to ever actually be used that way. This is risking an explosion of less force than a toddler's punch. And even an antimatter bomb big enough to send the earth to simultaneously collide with mars and Venus wouldn't open a black hole in it's explosion because explosions are in a force body sense, the opposite of a black hole. These things can feel mysterious and magical, but like everything else they're just physical manifestations of the math and physics our universe operates under

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

okay now you've sent me down a rabbit hole because i thought they used a PET scanner when they pumped me full of radioactive blood but now i'm not so sure.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago

Not even close.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All black holes are portable, if you have the right equipment.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm curious what the equipment you're thinking of is

[–] whats_a_lemmy@midwest.social 7 points 1 day ago

A bigger black hole

[–] ik5pvx@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

A very, very, very long lever.

Finding a place to use as fulcrum is left as an exercise to the reader.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)