ANTIMATTER - DOES IT MATTER?

 

The mention of antimatter usually conjurs up memories of ‘warp drives' from Star Trek or of plots to blow up important public landmarks, as in the recent fiction of Dan Brown. It is generally seen as an other-worldly concept which is the domain of boffins and sci-fi enthusiasts. In reality however, while antimatter is relatively rare in our world, it is still much more common than many would believe, and it is assuming an increasingly important role in technology and medicine. For example, the use of antimatter lies at the heart of PET scans – diagnostic cancer scans which are now commonplace in most of our major hospitals. Antimatter is also becoming an important tool in the characterisation of nano-scale materials which are used in applications as diverse as food storage and waste disposal. This lecture will provide some background to the discovery, production and uses of antimatter, and attempt to dispel some of the myths that surround it.

 

Professor Steve Buckman

Research Director

Australian Research Council Centre for Antimatter-Matter Studies

Australian National University

Stephen Buckman was educated in Sydney and Adelaide , receiving his BSc and PhD from Flinders University . He is a Professor of Physics at the Australian National University and the Research Director of the recently established ARC Centre for Antimatter-Matter Studies, which is hosted by the ANU's Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, and which has 8 research nodes throughout Australia, including one at JCU.

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