Something I Was Not Made Aware of Prior to Moving to North Carolina
Posted by Patrick on October 27th, 2007North Carolina, once known for tasty BBQ, college sports and tobacco farming, is now home to “the most intense low-energy positron (antimatter electron) beam operating anywhere in the world.”
Go ahead and read that statement again. I’ll wait.
Yeah so apparently some kids over at NC State (Go Wolf Pack!) have thrown together a piece of equipment called a PULSTAR which makes antimatter beams. You know, for antimatter spectrometers and antimatter microscopes. And, to end all of the life on earth.
Here’s a photo:
Yeah that’s not Star Trek, but it sure the heck looks like it. They worked hard to get the antimatter beam color to look about as creepy as possible.
Here’s a quote from one of the scientists working on the project:
“The idea here is that if we create this intense beam of antimatter electrons – the complete opposite of the electron, basically – we can then use them in investigating and understanding the new types of materials being used in many applications.”
And here’s a translation I wrote just now:
“We know antimatter is scary and a single accident could mean the end of humanity, but we have a huge endowment and have found no better way to light the Alpha Alpha Phi frat house fish tank then with an intense beam of antimatter electrons… whatever those are.”
If you are way smart, or like to see the word megawatt written a lot, there’s an article on the new reactor here. NC State’s scary vision of the future is written here.
p.s. – Of course I kid, I’m a huge fan of cool sciencey stuff and if anitmatter telescopes let us time travel, stop global warming and cure athlete’s foot, then I’m all for it. Can’t they do this kind of stuff in the Arctic though?
