Scientists trap antimatter particle for months

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorNow, physicists in Illinois, no, sorry, the study was led by Gerald Gabrielse at Northwestern, and they held a single antimatter particle for about a month.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt's a positron, the antimatter twin of the electron.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThey cooled it to about three hundred millikelvins and held it with electric and magnetic fields, so it never touches a wall.

4. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorGabrielse himself says, quote, all the matter and antimatter would annihilate and there'd be no universe left. And the safety plan is that it doesn't touch the wall.

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe wall is the part they're good at. Apparently.

6. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorA month. That's a month of somebody watching a power light and hoping the building keeps paying its electric bill.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe point is to compare it with the electron and see whether their magnetic moments are exactly opposite, like the Standard Model predicts.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorAnd if they're not?

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThen the most basic theories are wrong. Roni Harnik at Fermilab, who wasn't involved, says they say physics stays the same.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA CERN physicist called it a remarkable achievement.

11. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorRemarkable. One particle, a month, and a universe on the line. I'm just glad it's not the same building as the toaster.