If matter falls down, does antimatter fall up? - Chloé Malbrunot

Like positive and negative, or debit and credit, matter and antimatter are equal and opposite. So if matter falls down, does antimatter fall up? Chloé Malbrunot investigates that question by placing two atoms — one made of matter, and the other antimatter — in the cockpit of a plane, ready to jump. What do you think will happen?

 

Big Questions: Missing Antimatter

Einstein's equation E = mc2 is often said to mean that energy can be converted into matter. More accurately, energy can be converted to matter and antimatter.

During the first moments of the Big Bang, the universe was smaller, hotter and energy was everywhere. As the universe expanded and cooled, the energy converted into matter and antimatter. According to our best understanding, these two substances should have been created in equal quantities. However when we look out into the cosmos we see only matter and no antimatter.

The absence of antimatter is one of the Big Mysteries of modern physics. In this video, Fermilab's Dr. Don Lincoln explains the problem, although doesn't answer it. The answer, as in all Big Mysteries, is still unknown and one of the leading research topics of contemporary science.

The Search for Antimatter

If you don't have any idea what antimatter is, you don't have to feel bad - the brightest minds in the world have only recently begun to understand what it is and how it works. Hank gives us the run down on what we know about antimatter, and what we're still trying to figure out.

Other Sci-Show videos

ScienceCasts: Dark Lightning

Researchers studying thunderstorms have made a surprising discovery: The lightning we see with our eyes has a dark competitor that discharges storm clouds and flings antimatter into space. Astrophysicists and meteorologists are scrambling to understand "dark lightning."

 

ALPHA-2 arrives at CERN

While many experiments are methodically planning for intense works over the long shutdown, there is one experiment that is already working at full steam: ALPHA-2. Its final components arrived last month and will completely replace the previous ALPHA set-up.

Unlike its predecessor, this next generation experiment has been specifically designed to measure the properties of antimatter.

Read more about ALPHA-2: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2012/47/News%20Articles/1493544?ln=en

 

CERN news : ALPHA2 ANTIMATTER

CERN experiment makes spectroscopic measurement of antihydrogen.

 

What is Antimatter?

Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln describes antimatter and its properties. He also explains why antimatter, though a reality, doesn't pose any current threat to our existence!

Other Fermilab videos

What's new @CERN? number 2: LHC performance

In this second episode: LHC performance, a journey to the particle source and this past month's news. Guests: Steve Myers and Yves Schutz.

Other "What's new @ CERN" videos

Antimatter

Is it safe to shake the hand of a person made of antimatter?

CERN News - ASACUSA experiment

Antiprotons weighed with unprecedented precision.

Large Hadron Collider

A documentary about LHC, made by CERN.