Design Starting For Matter-Antimatter Collider 191
couch_warrior writes "The Register is carrying a story on the early design efforts for the next generation of high-energy particle accelerators. They will be linear, and will collide matter and antimatter in the form of electrons and positrons. The obvious question will be: once we have a matter-antimatter reactor, how long till we have warp drive, and will the Vulcans show up for a sneak-peak?"
antimatter (Score:0, Insightful)
Wrong Question (Score:5, Insightful)
The obvious question will be: once we have a matter-antimatter reactor, how long till we have warp drive, and will the Vulcans show up for a sneak-peak?"
Actually, I think the next question would be: "Now how can get some antimatter?"
It's my understanding that we can only manufacture ridiculously minute quantities of the stuff, and that may take more energy to make than we'll get out of it anyways.
Re:Wrong Question (Score:4, Insightful)
antimatter is like molecular hydrogen as a fuel for fuel cells. It's more of a storage device of energy than it is a a way to "produce" energy.
At this point it's terribly inefficient, but theoretically, it could be a viable means of taking an enormous amount of energy and storing it in a small place. :-)
Re:Wrong Question (Score:2, Insightful)
Matter / anti matter reactor is not enough (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately, a matter/anti matter reactor is not enough to create an Alcubierre drive.. We still need some Exotic Matter.. And a lot of it..
So .. go back to sleep.. nothing to see here..
--Ivan
Matter-Antimatter isnt new (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wrong Question (Score:5, Insightful)
Vogons clear it for an Intergalactic Highway (Score:2, Insightful)