Antimatter demystified
It's muddle over matter back from my holiday. Here's how I got to the bottom of those blues and just about everything that matters.
This tale was triggered from reading a news story about antimatter. Yeah, I know, I usually skip articles on antimatter too; I think I got distracted by the scale of the Geneva research centre, with the world's largest particle physics laboratory. The main machinery, as far as I can tell, is 27 kilometres worth of magnets sitting in a ring. The research has so far cost a mind-blowing 60 trillion dollars to make antimatter. And I learned that you can’t find antimatter in nature, you need to make it. I didn’t know that. You know, like you can find apples in nature but not apple crumble. You could make a lot of crumble for 60 trillion, right? Well it’s a bit like that. This is the muddle I got into when a person like me, who doesn’t do space, talks to a friend about THE beginning of the universe, on their FIRST week back from holiday, with ones head more in the clouds than usual!
‘Hi Pipp! How are you?’
Fine. Just back from holiday. Last week was tough. Better now!
‘What was the matter?’
I don’t know! It was like, [pause] like, I was spaced out! I couldn’t shake it off. You expect the first day back to work to be a bit slow, don’t you, but not the entire week! I don’t even have the excuse of jetlag!
‘Time to get back to your desk girl!’
Yeah! Right?! That’s what I told myself. I was totally off-kilter. Ha! My daughter asked me, ‘Mum, what on earth is the matter?’ So it wasn’t just a sensation, it was visible ‘an all! And then you know, questions like: ‘What’s for lunch?’ I’d reply, ‘No idea!’ because I didn’t! I was asked some pretty simple questions from some writers group too. Couldn’t reply either!
‘Really? That ‘out of it’?? Like what kind of questions?!’
Well, one question was: ‘What is your word for the week? [ from
. ] But I couldn’t think of one. All blank![Eyes down. Shaking head]
And another one was ‘What creature would you be if you could shapeshift? [ from
]. People answered so fast!; bird, eagle, hare, dragon but I couldn’t think of an answer. I got stuck on the word itself. To shapeshift!! [Shoulders up in a shrug] I felt like, I was over- and under-whelmed at once! Like, drifting, numb, d’you get me?‘Think so, yes.’
So I asked myself, ‘was I happy to be home?’ Answer, yes. ‘Did I wish I was still on holiday?’ Answer, Yes. Obviously!
[Growl.]
Ha! I think the clue, is in the growl! What d’you think? You see, I think my emotions on my return were clashing with emotions from our holiday, like, cancelling each other out!! Leaving me in a kind of, you know, like a vacuum!
‘You might as well have put yourself on #monkmode!’.
You what?
‘Nothing. Doesn’t matter’.
Yeah, so, it got me wondering, what is this out-of-sync post-holiday stuff? I reckon I was splitting down the middle. Like a splitting atom.
‘Well, you are of sorts. Lots of atoms together at least!’
I think the more we unwind on holiday, the more we slow down, the longer it takes to get back to full power again!
‘Makes sense!!’
So feeling out of it, is actually a sign that, all was well, holiday-wise! Right?? You know, I mean, it’s a good thing, this state of mind, isn’t it??
‘Maybe!’
Shame no one can prove this stuff!
‘Well, funny you should say that but last week I came across an amazing article by Pallab Ghosh. Though at first it makes your head spin. You have to give it some time to sink in. It turns out, well, it explains the root of just about everything. You see, it all comes down to antimatter. Nothing easily visible though! I hasten to add!’
[My eyes roll upwards in a ‘here-we-go’.]
‘Yes, it always helps when you can visualise things, me too, but anyway, they reckon that during the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have combined and cancelled each other leaving nothing but light’. ‘
Ah! Right! [Rolling eyes sarcastically.]
‘No! Listen. Remember classes at school, Einstein, he said something like, ‘In the end, somehow, ‘matter overcomes antimatter’?’
If you say so. I can’t remember much about physics. How can he have known anyway, a hundred flipping years ago, all this stuff!!? So what are you getting at? Oh, you mean, hence the vacuum feeling? i.e it’s normal to feel numb and out of it sometimes?
And so when my grandmother says, ‘it’s all mind-over-matter’ has she been reading Einstein?
‘Well, that’s not really what I , … No! But yes! Think about it; you felt numb, inert, and then your ‘out of kilter-ness’ dissolved with the light!’
Did I say that?
‘Well it all dawned on you some time over the weekend? Am I right? I mean, you finally like, landed. You saw the light. You’re back with the living! Right?’
[Nodding now in agreement]
‘Proof: I bet you now know what there is for lunch!’
Yep.
‘And you know the answer to the questions about shapeshifting!' So what creature would you shapeshift to?’
Squirrel
‘Why squirrel?’
Derr! Because they are shapeshifting masters, of course, travelling at the speed of light! Ever watched one for a while? They skip along branches like a cat and then fly like a bird, flying without wings, from tree to tree, in an utterly weightless adventure, so fast there’s no way they can think or analyse what they do; their nerve endings respond spontaneously to the feel of the bark. Like your Einstein, he was right, ‘in order to keep your balance you must keep moving’.
‘He’s not mine! Wasn’t that something to do with riding a bike? [pause, while thinking] I’ve seen squirrels jump across tree tops, yes and certainly they have no time for fear of heights!’
And so if I shapeshift to squirrel, I am at once a bird and a cat. Smart choice, don’t you think?
‘A bit greedy, shapeshifting into two things?!’
And guess what my word for the week is!
[There’s no chance to reply.]
My word for the week is centre. You see we can wriggle, scribble, wiggle, doodle, google, boogie-woogie, praise and ponder, twirl, twist and turn all you like!! …as long as by the end of the day, we draw our thoughts back into centre.
‘Like the namaste hands pressing to a point? To an aligning middle?’
Exactly. You know, [closed eyes] Ohm! Meditate on the calm of the breath and bring yourself, in-to-the-middle!
‘So…you mean, if you listen to your breath and meditate, your antimatter won’t hit matter? Avoidance Techniques on a Yoga Mat, so to speak?’
I couldn’t have put it better myself! And Tolkien!
‘Tolkien!?’
He said, ‘All that is gold, does not glitter!!’
‘You mean Shakespeare!?’
Whatever. Yes. Did he say glitter? Anyway, you see, we should never think that we don’t matter, just’ cos we don’t glitter! And last week I definitely didn’t glitter!
‘Well now you mention it, Mr Ghosh’s article did say that the only way they could understand what was going on in the Big Bang was to recreate the same environmental conditions and then they had to slow things right down in a decelerator and then they use a light to shine on the answers. I reckon all they see is glitter!’
There. That settles it. Glitter matters, you just have to slow things down to be able to see it.
‘You mean, matter glitters! Sometimes. Anyway, what’s beyond doubt, as he said, "Antimatter is just the coolest, most mysterious stuff’!’
Yeah! Before you go, look at my photo of antimatter meets matter. It illustrates the point perfectly, don’t you think? That’s de-mystifies it all a bit, don’t you think?.
After that profound conversation I felt inspired to write a short enlightening poem, just for you! Here goes, it’s called ‘Whatever the matter.’
Oh you and I, we matter;
We matter very much.
We stars of mysterious cosmic matter,
Go forth and glitter.
Never forget;
You are not alone,
For if we add up the pros and cons,
Of all that glitters and all that matters
And we point a light on billions of particles
We can see, when we slow it down for just a wee while,
That we sparkle in this universe
As one huge, marvellous and beautiful whole.
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Special thanks to the discoveries of Dr Danielle Hodgkinson, and his research team at Cern in Switzerland.
Research began 70 years ago in Copenhagen university and now involves 23 countries, employing 2600 people but after spending trillions have produced only sixty wats of electricity, yes, enough to power a lamp for four hours.
Now that makes my solar panels look very cheap!! You see? And you thought it was me who wasn’t making sense! Thank goodness it provides jobs!
Also thanks also to an article by Pallab Ghosh.
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Looking forward to seeing you next week. Remember to bring yourself back to the middle before bed. And I will too.
Yes I know, this week’s tale proves I’m starting to lose it! Apologies for today’s silliness. I’m not at all sure where it came from. (From the cosmos maybe?!)
Going to start writing out in the woods again, if the mosquitos will let me. I think I need to leave space alone and get back to earth.
Lots of love,
Oh. And yes. Thanks to a reader prompt in thread, I went to double check:
…’all that glisters’, was from Shakespeare, but Tolkien referred to the glitters,
you thinkin’ he nicked it?
but then, anyway, I kind of turned the meaning on its head, so maybe I will leave as is,😂 I know! I will be following conspiracy theorists next! Right?
Nope!!! Glad to say,
There’s not a chance of that. Lots of love for the weekend. Have a good one.
Wow that’s so interesting, I love the way the story goes back and forth. It’s a very cleverly written piece. One versus the other ! Then back to the centre . Your photo fits perfectly
I couldn’t live this more Pipp! 😂🙌🏽😘