Angels and Demons … and Magnets?
June 30, 2009 – The recent box office hit ‘Angels and Demons’, starring Tom Hanks, describes a plot to blow up the Vatican. In the story, a small quantity of antimatter, stolen from a large research laboratory, has the explosive power of a nuclear weapon. While the story invented by the best seller author Dan Brown is pure science fiction, a high tech company, Advanced Magnet Lab, Inc. (AML), in Palm Bay Florida is working on technology that enables research on the exotic substance, antimatter, which might one day help making Star Trek reality.
Antimatter is not an invention from science fiction only, but exists in reality. Fundamental research has shown already decades ago that every building block of our universe has a partner, called antimatter. In most aspects matter and antimatter are identical, except that they annihilate each other on contact, releasing huge amounts of energy.
Minute amounts of antimatter have actually been produced at research labs in Europe and the US, but containment of this exotic substance is difficult to say the least, since any contact with matter from the real world needs to be avoided. Containers surrounded by complex magnetic fields and enclosing complete vacuum are needed to store antimatter, once it has been produced and the insertion into such container has been achieved.
The total amount of antimatter ever produced by mankind would not even produce enough annihilation energy to heat a coffee pot. While antimatter as a weapon or fuel for future space ships is currently only possible in science fiction, the substance is of great interest for science. The observation that our observable universe is almost entirely matter is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics.
Researchers at Harvard University are working with AML on the development of a new apparatus for containment of antimatter atoms, making them accessible for research and enhancing our understanding of the fundamental laws of physics. To capture antimatter atoms, requires a very challenging “magnetic trap” made of several high power superconducting magnets all operating at ultra low temperatures near absolute zero (-459 F).
Founded in 1995, Advanced Magnet Lab (AML) has developed a comprehensive portfolio of magnet technology, which fundamentally changes science, engineering, and manufacturing of medical, energy and research applications. This results in product solutions which are significantly more compact, efficient, reliable, and cost effective.
Contact: Mark Senti (321) 728-7543
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