(Press-News.org) In the movie Angels and Demons, scientists have solved one of the most perplexing scientific problems: the capture and storage of antimatter. In real life, trapping atomic antimatter has never been accomplished, until now.
A team made up of researchers from the University of Calgary, institutions across Canada and around the world have discovered how to trap atomic antimatter and the results of their discovery is published in the journal Nature.
"This is a major discovery. It could enable experiments that result in dramatic changes to the current view of fundamental physics or in confirmation of what we already know now," says Rob Thompson, head of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary and co-investigator in the ALPHA collaboration, one of two teams competing to gain a better understanding of antimatter and our universe.
Both teams, ALPHA and the Harvard-led ATRAP, have been at this race for over five years conducting experiments in close quarters at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the world's largest particle physics lab, located in the suburbs of Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is the only laboratory in the world with the proper equipment where this research can be carried out.
"These are significant steps in antimatter research," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "and an important part of the very broad research programme at CERN."
The goal of the competition involves trapping and storing the simplest of all antimatter atoms, antihydrogen, with the purpose of studying it. Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element.
"We know a lot about matter, but very little about antimatter. We assume there was as much antimatter created in the Big Bang as matter. There are many questions. Where is the antimatter? Where did it go? And why does it appear that there is more matter than antimatter?" says Makoto Fujiwara, adjunct professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary and a research scientist at TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics.
ALPHA-Canada scientists and students have been playing leading roles in the experiment. "It's been a rare privilege and a tremendous learning experience taking part in this groundbreaking international endeavour," says Richard Hydomako, a PhD student at the University of Calgary.
Trapping antimatter is tricky. When matter and antimatter get too close, they destroy each other, in a kind of explosion, leaving behind the energy which made them. The challenge is cooling the atoms off enough, 272 degrees below zero, so that they are slow enough to be trapped in a magnetic storage device.
"We've been able to trap about 38 atoms, which is an incredibly small amount, nothing like what we would need to power Star Trek's starship Enterprise or even to heat a cup of coffee," says Thompson , one of 42 co-authors of the Nature paper along with the University of Calgary's Makoto Fujiwara and graduate students Richard Hydomako and Tim Friesen.
"Now we can start working on the next step which is to use tools to study it," adds Thompson
INFORMATION:
The paper entitled Trapped Hydrogen is published in Nature at http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html
Researchers trap antimatter atoms
Discovery may challenge physics fundamentals
2010-11-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
PARP inhibitor, MK-4827, shows anti-tumor activity in first trial in humans
2010-11-18
A new drug that targets proteins responsible for helping cancer cells to repair damage to their DNA has shown promising anti-tumour activity in its first trial in humans. Some patients with a range of solid tumours, many of whom had been treated unsuccessfully for their cancer with other therapies, have seen their tumours shrink or stabilise for periods of between 46 days to more than a year. The research will be presented at the 22nd EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin today (Thursday).
Laboratory studies of the drug, MK-4827, ...
NIH experts describe influenza vaccines of the future
2010-11-18
WHAT:
In a review article appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, examine research under way to address the limitations of currently available influenza vaccines and develop more efficient and reliable strategies to make vaccines to protect against seasonal as well as pandemic influenza. Although licensed seasonal flu vaccines safely and effectively protect most people who receive them from illness and death, the degree of protection varies ...
Structure of Lassa virus protein reveals viral thievery
2010-11-18
Scientists at Emory University and the University of St. Andrews have solved the structure of a key protein from Lassa virus, which is endemic to West Africa and can cause a deadly hemorrhagic fever.
The structure reveals how the virus evades its host's immune system, and how it hijacks infected cells' vital machinery in a process scientists call "cap-stealing." Details of the structure could guide future efforts at antiviral drug discovery and vaccine development.
The results are published in this week's issue of Nature.
Lassa virus represents a family of viruses ...
Nation's top hospital organ transplant centers identified by HealthGrades
2010-11-18
GOLDEN, Colo. (November 17, 2010) – HealthGrades, the nation's leading independent ratings organization, today made available to organ transplant patients a list of those hospitals with the best track record for survival and chances of receiving a donor organ. HealthGrades annual evaluation of the nation's top-performing hospitals in organ transplantation includes clinical quality data, based on patient outcomes, for each of the 210 adult acute care hospitals that perform transplants. This information is available, free to the public, at HealthGrades.com and is intended ...
Multidisciplinary approach is key to successful treatment of aggressive prostate cancer
2010-11-18
PHILADELPHIA – A research team from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Kimmel Cancer Center (KCC) at Jefferson has concluded – for the first time – that a multidisciplinary clinic approach to aggressive prostate cancer can improve survival in patients. The results from the 15-year study of the multidisciplinary clinic can be found in the November issue of Journal of Oncology Practice.
Stats and Treatment
Prostate cancer remains the most common non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. In fact, about 218,000 ...
Lower back and foot pain associated with more severe knee osteoarthritis symptoms
2010-11-18
A new study found that patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee who also have pain in other joints were more likely to experience greater knee pain. Specifically, pain in the lower back as well as foot pain and elbow pain on the same side as the affected knee were associated with more severe knee pain. Full details appear in the December issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.
Knee OA is the leading cause of disability in the U.S., with nearly 4.3 million adults over age 60 having ...
1-touch make-up -- for our cells
2010-11-18
VIDEO:
Cells from a pig's cardiovascular system with different components are labeled simultaneously, using the new Multi-Label technology.
Click here for more information.
The cells in the different parts of this video are always the same, but, like actors using make-up to highlight different facial features, they have fluorescent labels that mark different cellular components in different colours: blue shows the nucleus, yellow shows tubulin (a component of the cell's scaffolding), ...
Nurse practitioner-led spinal clinic produced impressive results and shorter waiting times
2010-11-18
Ninety-six per cent of patients with back problems were satisfied with the assessment carried out by a specially trained nurse practitioner, according to a study in the December issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Seventy-four per cent were happy to see her rather than wait up to a year to see a surgeon, with less than a quarter of those who preferred to see a surgeon saying that the extra wait was acceptable.
The pilot study at Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, Canada, was judged a resounding success after nurse practitioner Angela Sarro came up with exactly ...
Scientists step closer to understanding secrets of anti-matter
2010-11-18
Researchers have trapped and held the atoms, the anti-matter counterpart of hydrogen, using an experiment called ALPHA at CERN in Switzerland. Anti-matter particles are instantly annihilated when they come into contact with matter and, until now, it has not been possible to study anti-hydrogen in any detail. The experiment has brought scientists closer to understanding the structure and composition of anti-matter.
The ALPHA experiment was developed to cool and slow down the anti-particles that make up anti-hydrogen and mix them to produce antihydrogen. Some of the ...
Study finds evidence of gender bias toward diagnosing boys with autism
2010-11-18
Social factors can play a key role in whether or not a child is diagnosed as autistic, a new study has found.
Boys were more likely to receive a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) than girls, even when symptoms were equally severe, according to researchers at the universities of Exeter and Bristol.
"We wanted to find out what distinguishes those children without diagnosis but with autistic traits from those who have received a formal ASD diagnosis in the clinic," explained lead researcher Ginny Russell, from Egenis at the University of Exeter. "We thought ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
iRECODE: A new computational method that brings clarity to single-cell analysis
New NUS-MOH study: Singapore’s healthcare sector carbon emissions 18% lower than expected, a milestone in the city-state’s net zero journey
QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power
Major new report sets out how to tackle the ‘profound and lasting impact’ of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health
Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world
Major report tackles Covid’s cardiovascular crisis head-on
A third of licensed GPs in England not working in NHS general practice
ChatGPT “thought on the fly” when put through Ancient Greek maths puzzle
Engineers uncover why tiny particles form clusters in turbulent air
GLP-1RA drugs dramatically reduce death and cardiovascular risk in psoriasis patients
Psoriasis linked to increased risk of vision-threatening eye disease, study finds
Reprogramming obesity: New drug from Italian biotech aims to treat the underlying causes of obesity
Type 2 diabetes may accelerate development of multiple chronic diseases, particularly in the early stages, UK Biobank study suggests
Resistance training may improve nerve health, slow aging process, study shows
Common and inexpensive medicine halves the risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer
SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events
Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design
New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients
Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?
Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain
Decoding plants’ language of light
UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC
New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury
New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows
Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?
1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5
In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day
Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds
Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production
Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago
[Press-News.org] Researchers trap antimatter atomsDiscovery may challenge physics fundamentals