Matter/AntiMatter Molecule Created

Scientists at CERN, a giant particle accelerator straddling the border between France and Switzerland, have created the first molecule made of both matter and antimattter.

The researchers made the molecules by slowing antiprotons and letting them interact with hydrogen molecules, leading to molecules consisting of a single proton bound to a single antiproton, as well as leftover hydrogen atoms.

(Bear in mind that scientists have long ago managed to join electrons and positrons together into positronium, which is a lot like a molecule, but molecules really should have atoms in them, rather than just electrons and their antimatter positron partners.)

The researchers reported their work in this week's edition of Physical Review Letters.

Now the big question -- what do we call the stuff?

The CERN folks are going with "antiprotonic hydrogen." A bit hard on the tongue, I think.

My friends at Physics News Update (PNU), who reported the story first, like "protonium." That's probably the best bet, but if we are following convention established with positronium (which is named after the antimatter particle), it should be called "antiprotonium."

Wikipedia already has an entry for protonium, so I think my PNU friends have made the right call.

Regarding the graphic above, you can't really take pictures of atoms and small molecules, but these shapes (spherical harmonics) are closer to the way hydrogen atoms would actually look if you could see them. If CERN releases images of protonium/antiprotonium/anitprotonic hydrogen, I'll post those instead.

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2006 Physics Ig Nobel: How Spaghetti Breaks

Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie won the 2006 Ig Nobel for their analysis that explains why spaghetti breaks into several pieces when it is bent.

Congratulations guys!

I should also offer my appologies,Basile and Sebastien, in case you fellas aren't too happy about this one (personally, I would consider it a kind of honor). You see, I first publicised the paper in a news tip sheet that I write for the APS. It appeared in Tip Sheet #50, which I sent out July 21, 2005.

Of course, they made the trip all the way from France to attend the ceremony at Harvard, so they can't be very upset. I guess I'll know when I can finally get through to see the video posted on the Ig Nobel site, but it seems to be swamped at the moment.

What the heck, it's an interesting story and the physics has real world applications (for predicting structural failure in bridges, buildings, and even human bones). Check out the extensive article about it in Science News, if you don't believe me.

I've also written an official APS press release about it, with a quote from SpaceKendra.
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Pretty Physics Picture of the Week

Certain combinations of chemicals can react over and over again in cycles that take seconds, minutes or longer. Scientists call them chemical oscillators, and one of the best known is the BZ reaction. This picture is an oscillating chemical reaction described in last week's Physical Review Letters journal.



I'm not going to go into the details. I just like the picture.

If you want to read up on it, the abstract for the paper by K. J. M. Bishop and B. A. Grzybowski is online.

I plan to post pretty physics pictures from time to time. If anyone has any suggestions, drop me a line.
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