http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/scienceshot-thunderstorms-make-a.html?ref=hp

Awesome!

Hopefully we might "catch" some anitmatter soon.

We already have caught antimatter

Hahaha flying into a storm to collect Anti Matter. Badass.

Barely. Not enough, from I read, to do comphresive research on it though.

Scientists are making this huge fuss over antimatter, and I have one question; why? Do they have anything in mind that it can be used for? Are they just doing it to know?

They most definitely have thing sin mind for it. No I would not know, but I know there is no limit to the human imagination. I know right now I want an anti matter gun. Muahahaha.

Well, IF we could get a cost-effective supply of antimatter, it would be the ultimate energy source (and the ultimate weapon :whistling:)

It would be an ultimate weapon of mass destruction. However with the raw energy of anti matter we could finally replicate quark gluon plasma effectively. I would need to find the article but someone found a way to direct plasma without it being in a tube or needing guidance the whole way. To sort of shoot it out of the barrel if you will. Granted range was very limited, but with refinement the possibilities are great. Quark Gluon Plasma being vastly hotter than the sun would make effective infantry weapons powered by anti matter. As a last resort and your about to die a small anti matter bomb ensures you can take the enemy down. Perfect. The bolts of plasma generated would be so small and over so quick you wouldn't know what hit you. Though I am unsure what would happen heat wise. That much raw heat could prove to have immense collateral damage even with tiny ass bolts we can't see. In that case could down scale the type of plasma used. Not as effective sure, but would ensure shooting the thing doesn't melt your hand off. Materials to build said gun would also be hard to come by... hmmm. Unless you could remotely form the plasma where you point the gun, but as far as I know not possible. Disregard my ramblings, I am by no means an expert in anything.

Bah I liked it when they made sprite.

Yes, I can garuntee that the first thin people will try to do with it is make a weapon, there may be other benifits after that, but I can tell the main reason would be "so how can I make thi kill people". Which judging by other peoples posts seems about right.

They grew up on Star Trek.

was the yellow above the clouds in the picture the TGF lights they were talking about? that's some trippy stuff...

:P

I would see such thing to be more effective for energy production, or as some sorth of engine.

Since anti-matter releases a ton of energy... would http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oibTRB7SPWU be possible? If so, shorthanded materials would be a thing of the past.

Alternatively we could use anti-matter energy to get to greater stepping stones and higher sources of power.

No knowledge is without its benefits, especially when it comes to particle physics.

So basically, electrons accelerated due to an electric field interacting with air molecules via braking radiation and characteristic excitation radiation sends out high-energy photons with an energy above the double of the electron rest mass energy (2mc^2) as to cause an electron-positron pair production. I assume we're excited by this revelation because of the electrons' interactions managing to send out enough energy due to a thunderstorm for this phenomenon to occur, then?

We could use the energy output by an antimatter reaction to provide the jump start for fusion.

are you kidding? antimatter warp drives, photon torpdedoes which use antimatter, antimatter ray guns, antimatter bug repellant (as soon as the mosquitoe touches you it gets vaporized). it would also be a much cooler form of renewable energy than this lame solar and wind crap.

france........"we have lots of nuclear plants"

germany....."we have lots of solar plants"

denmark....."we have lots of windmills"

USA........"HAHAHA, what a bunch of panzys....we have antimatter reactors.......you noobs." :tongue:

edit: that picture looks a bit photoshopped to me..........

I have always been confused by antimatter. when matter and anti matter touch their supposed to react violently (makes sense that it would appear in something voilent like lightning) but wouldn't antimatter be constantly be touching matter since its surrounded by particles made from normal matter? I never got that.

It is the raw energy and gaseous state that helps that to make sense for me. In those conditions it seems much easier (with all the energy) to form the matter, almost like a snap grid, to allow the pockets in which antimatter can exist. Also the destruction and creation process with all that energy.


Cool stuff.

Except that the all the largest organisation for that kind of research is CERN in Europe :wink_smile:

hmm, I think I see what you are saying.

The US needs to invade Europe and divide the spoils with China, in order to secure our energy dominance and get out of debt.

Divide with China? China would give you the leftovers if you were lucky :ninja: