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'from none,
add none,
take one,
make none'
(Martin Creed)
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nothing
featured
creation of anti-atoms
creation of antimatter atoms
physicists at CERN have announced that they have passed
through nature's looking glass and created atoms made of antimatter,
or anti-atoms, opening up the possibility of experiments in
a realm once reserved for science fiction writers. such experiments,
theorists say, could test some of the basic tenets of modern
physics and show the way to a deeper understanding of nature.
 matter
and antimatter are endowed with equal and opposite characteristics
such as charge and spin, so if they meet they obliterate each
other, releasing a flash of energy upon contact.
scientists see the creation of antihydrogen atoms as
the first step toward testing some physicists' deepest notions
about nature, which hold that antimatter should look and behave
identically to ordinary matter. for example, any violation of
the expected symmetry between hydrogen and antihydrogen, like
a slight difference in the wavelengths of the light they emit,
would rock physics to its core.
by corraling clouds of antimatter particles in a cylindrical
chamber laced with detectors and electric and magnetic fields,
the physicists assembled antihydrogen atoms, the looking-glass
equivalent of hydrogen, the most simple atom in nature. whereas
hydrogen consists of a positively charged proton circled by
negatively charged electrons, in antihydrogen the proton's evil
twin, a positively charged antiproton, is circled by an antielectron,
otherwise known as a positron. they then observed the flashes
of energy when the new antihydrogen atoms annihilated themselves
in collisions with ordinary matter in the walls of the chamber.
at least 50,000 antihydrogen atoms have been created
since the experiment began in August, said Jeffrey Hangst, from
Aarhus University in Denmark, who coordinated efforts by 39
physicists from 10 institutions in a collaboration named Athena.
in science fiction, antimatter, with its perfect convertibility
to energy, is the ultimate rocket fuel, but the CERN scientists
see their anti-hydrogen atoms as a ticket not across the galaxy
but in effect to a different universe, in which clocks run backward,
left is right, and positive is negative.
antimatter has been part of physics ever since 1927,
when its existence was predicted by the British physicist Paul
Dirac. the antielectron, or positron, was discovered in 1932.
according to the theory, matter can only be created in
particle-antiparticle pairs. it is still a mystery, cosmologists
say, why the universe seems to be overwhelmingly composed of
normal matter.
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links:
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CERN:
The ATHENA Experiment | ~ | CERN
(Pressrelease): Thousands of cold anti-atoms produced |
~ | CERN:
ATHENA Experiment Quicktime Movie [7Mb] | ~ | CERN:
Antimatter | ~ | Nature:
50,000 atoms of anti-hydrogen made | ~ | Scientific
American: What is antimatter? | ~ | An
introduction to Particle Physics | ~ | BBC:
Antimatter mystery deepens |
---
former featured nothings
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refugees
are non-persons - taking photographs that could "humanise
or personalise"asylum seekers has been banned by former
defense minister Peter Reith's office in Australia ..."
(June-02)
what is
- and what is not? - a story about an encounter and about trying
to differ between fact and non-fact ... (May-02)
the right
not to be born - the French parliament has passed a bill that
states that "nobody can claim to have been harmed simply
by being born". the extraordinary bill was a response to
a conviction by the French supreme court that is said to have
established the right not to be born ... (April-02)
the 11,202,803
children - who were born out of nothing during the 31 days of
Mars 2002 ... (Mars-02)
Nothing
I Know / Something I Don’t Know - by Graham Gussin ...
(February-02)
the potent
nothing of cyberspace - this virtual reality in which we now
are taking part ... (January-02)
the active
nothing of terror and response on terror; - the World Trade
Center - Afghanistan and on ... (December-01)
Nothing
at ROOSEUM, Malmö's Center for Contemporary Art, 3 November
- 16 December, 2001. works by 35 artists exploring notions of
invisibility, imagination and dematerialisation ... (November-01)
for
every tent; the other!
- consisting of two Irish green, empty tents, one raised outside
Atelier 35 in Bucharest, and one inside the gallery space ...
(October-01)
the hyper-metaphor;
UK, raising tents
- containing, among other things, a motorway, ten tents, a text
discussion and an internet diary ... (September-01)
---
- suggestions
is gratefully accepted!
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