this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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Science

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[–] SenatorCollins@aussie.zone 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Well, there are a lot of particles going around the universe all the time, and very seldom does anything like this happen. I just don’t want people thinking that transporting 92 antiprotons in a specially designed bottle that traps the particles using magnetic fields on the back of a truck, taking a 30-minute journey around the lab’s site isn’t safe.

[–] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

magnetic field fluctuates

This just in... I have been informed that the antiprotons are no longer in the environment.

[–] 667@lemmy.radio 9 points 3 days ago

Did the front fall off?

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Which of the diamonds goes on the back of the truck for this one?

[–] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 4 points 3 days ago

But was it decaf??

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 4 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Not mentioned was how big the ---BOOM--- would be if the container jar failed.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Only 92 antiprotons, antimatter annihilation is famously energetic but that's still a tiny amount, I don't think you'd even see anything happen without special equipment to detect it.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 days ago

Yeah, I couldn't find it but I saw a funny quote about the energy quantity. Definitely in the "oscilloscope can detect it" order of power.

It's comically low and the next step, which is taking some anti protons to Dusseldorf for further study, would be a similar quantity.

[–] JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

Whoa, that's a pretty big BOO... oh.

Okay, thanks.

In previous articles the energy wouldn't have been enough to boil a cup of coffee.

"The device on Cern’s truck will carry about 1,000 antimatter particles, weighing about a billionth of a trillionth of a gram. Should the containment fail, and the antimatter make contact with normal matter, the resulting pulse of energy would be so feeble, the load doesn’t even warrant a radioactive label."

[–] knightly@pawb.social 12 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Not even enough to raise the temperature of the containment bottle by a degree. 92 antiparticles vs. trillions of atoms of steel and composite.

[–] porcoesphino@mander.xyz 8 points 3 days ago

In another article the author wrote it was about the same energy it takes to press a key on a keyboard