Antimatter Molecule Should Boost Laser Power 211
Laser Lover writes "Molecules made by combining an electron with their anti-particle positron have been created by researchers at the University of California Riverside. The team's long term goal is to use the exotic material to create 'an annihilation gamma ray laser', potentially one million times more powerful than existing lasers. 'An electron can hook up with its antiparticle, the positron, to form a hydrogen-like atom called positronium (Ps). It survives for less than 150 nanoseconds before it is annihilated in a puff of gamma radiation. It was known that two positronium atoms should be able to bind together to form a molecule ... '"
Could we use it on sharks? (Score:5, Informative)
Nature article (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7159/abs/nature06094.html [nature.com]
super-atom condensate???? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nature article (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html [nature.com]
More info (Score:4, Informative)
Burning your gamma ray candle in both ends (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Oh yes... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:iran (Score:4, Informative)
If the US had not sought out or accepted the surrender of Japan the war would have continued in one form or another. Even if what one side is communicating is "give up or we do that again" it is still two sides meeting and making an agreement (the surrender was indeed negotiated, the US did compromise on the removal of the Emperor for instance) that ended the Pacific campaign.
Re: Burning your gamma ray candle in both ends (Score:3, Informative)
A mirror for gamma rays would be cool, but would probably so far I don't think there are mirrors for even X-Rays. (Although they have made gold Fresnel lens for X-Rays.