Penning traps have been around for decades.
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026
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How did they know at any given point that it was still there? Wouldn’t they have to interact with it to be sure, causing an explosion and annihilating it? The explosion would be incredibly small with just one particle. Is the lack of explosion their only evidence that they had contained it? I’m stumped as to what it actually means to have one particle like this. How can you even know what temperature it is without interacting with it? And how do you interact with it without destroying it?
Yes, you'd detect gamma rays from the annihilation.
Yeah I’m sure the annihilation would be detectable. I’m asking if there’s any way short of that to detect the antimatter particle.
Maybe get it to emit synchrotron radiation? Seems complex.
Your move antimatter
So it's potty trained and can do tricks now?
This is actually really exciting! I fucking love anti-matter, always been fascinated by it.
If anti-matter can exist, why is our universe made of matter? This is the Baryon Asymmetry question that this research seeks to answer. The team has proven they can isolate a single positron. The next step is to measure it to as much accuracy as they have with the electron. Perhaps they will find differences!
Summer '25 CERN showed that anti-matter baryons (protons, neutrons, etc) decay differently - link. So there's a good chance they might find something!
Would love to actually see anti-matter but that's a long way off. Really hope anti-matter likes to stick together and we could actually build atoms out of it. Would be crazy to study the properties of anti-water! Maybe that's just science fiction. In any case, very excited for the coming research!
I know very little about this but you make me excited to know more. Thanks!
If you love antimatter. eat banana. It contains traces of antimatter.
Bananas always get the hype for being particularly rich in potassium-40, which is the unstable isotope, but Brazil nuts have far more, and potato and carrot are about as radioactive as banana.
But can you use a potato for scale?
The problem is it also contains a non-insignificant quantity of banana.
Don’t they annihilate each other when they encounter matter? How can a banana contain antimatter safely?
They do, and it can't. It's getting annihilated the first time it touches normal matter, producing other radiation. Nuclear decay in the banana produces more antimatter.
That's a good idea for Star Trek. They allready had the mushroom powered warpdrive. So a starship powered by bananas isn't that far fetched.
"Would love to actually see anti-matter" - are you being literal here? because that would require a vacuum between your eyes and antimatter that emits at a visible frequency. Not entirely impossible, but detection and recording of an anti-hydrogen transition wavelength is more easily achievable. This might be no more than an LCD display indicating a non-zero number though. Exciting for sure, but not necessarily a visual spectacle.
You did not just write "LCD display". Feel ashamed! >:V
Other display technologies can't properly reflect the real level of awsomeness in what can be seen about that positron.
Even good old CRT would be cooler than LCD nowadays.
As long as it isn't a liquid LCD display.
or an automated atm machine
Or a digital DSL line.
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Yeah very literal. Would need millions of atoms of the stuff. Actually maybe that's too dangerous lol
We have managed to see a single strontium atom - link. Maybe that's attainable with anti-matter.
But yeah you're right, capturing an anti-hyrdogen emission would be an huge achievement itself!
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I always assume it's the same reason why are have mostly right handed people. It's just that the scales tipped at some point and it had to go down one way from that point.
Yeah probably but the important bit is why!
Good point about right handedness! That is actually quite fascinating as well because in most other primates it's a 50/50 split.
Turns out walking is probably the major factor and our brains created the split - link. Still more questions though lol
TIL. Thanks!
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I think the universe actually is perfectly balanced between antimatter and matter, but variation across space emerged as space expanded and our entire observable universe happens to be in a pocket where there was more matter than antimatter.
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how did this get past the ethics committee
Won't somebody please think of the ~~children~~ antimatter?!
antichildren*
I wonder if it likes one scientist over another scientist
-"Free Anti Matt Er!"
Poor particle did nothing bad
It doesn't matter
This is anti-electron astroturfing right here, verging on hate speech.
Everyone calm down. There's enough love in the world for all the different types of particles.
Oh, and I suppose you want the electrons and positrons to just hug it out?!
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I wonder what they called it,since they tamed it.
I'm thinking Anton if it's a boy particle, Antonia if it's a girl, and Matty if it's nonbinary.
Perhaps Antti (Niemi) if it's Finnish 🤷🏻
How do you determine it's gender? The spin? Electrical charge? Quark makeup?
How do you determine it's gender?
VERY carefully.
Gender reveal particle.
Not gonna be impressed until they teach it to fetch.
If movies have taught me anything, that particle isn’t tame. It’s just waiting for it’s moment.
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Antimatter matters!
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