The most dangerous delivery truck? How a lorry-load of antimatter will help solve secrets of universe

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/dec/08/cern-antimatter-secrets-universe-science

The most dangerous delivery truck? How a lorry-load of antimatter will help solve secrets of universe

Fantastically expensive and hard to handle, the substance holds the key to a holy grail of science. And experts at Cern now know how to transport it

Robin McKie, science editor
Sun 8 Dec 2024 01.00 EST

Researchers are preparing to make one of science’s most unusual journeys. They are planning to transport a container of antimatter in a lorry across Europe.

Antimatter is the most expensive material on Earth – it’s estimated it would cost several trillion dollars to make a gram – and it can only be manufactured in particle physics laboratories such as the Cern research centre near Geneva.

It is also extremely tricky to handle. If antimatter makes contact with normal matter, both are annihilated, releasing a powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation. Only by carefully combining sets of powerful electrical and magnetic fields in special devices can antimatter be stored safely.

“That makes moving it around very difficult, though we are now close to making our first journey,” said Prof Stefan Ulmer, a scientist at Cern. “Antimatter has so much to tell us. That is why we are doing this.”

Moving the antimatter will be a scientific first, though it has a fictional precursor. In Dan Brown’s thriller Angels & Demons – made into a film starring Tom Hanks in 2009 – terrorists steal a canister of antimatter from Cern and try to obliterate the Vatican with it.

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