Trapping Something in (NOT) a Bottle

         Did you ever read something that just blew your mind? I'm talking you read it, re-read it, and read it once more. When you were finished you sat back and said "wow, that just blew my fucking mind." Excuse the foul language but that's exactly what I said after reading this article and I don't want you to miss out on the true emotions. I'm a fairly smart individual. Hey, shut up, I'm serious. I know I'm not a scientist or anything but I figured I would be able to grasp any non-fiction article I happened upon. Boy, was I mistaken.
       

The whole process occurred within a magnetic "bottle" that takes advantage of the magnetic properties of the antiatoms to keep them contained. An actual bottle, made of ordinary matter, would not be able to hold antimatter because when the two types of matter meet they annihilate.

           Yea, that's what I said. To give you a short background on the article, scientists have contained antimatter for 16 minutes and 40 seconds. This is a huge breakthrough because the theory is that for every atom in the Universe there is an antiatom. For example, for every hydrogen atom there is an antihydrogen atom. These antiatoms are called antimatter. Scientists say that during the Big Bang, which created the Universe 13.6 billion years ago, there was an equal amount of matter and antimatter thrown into space. Since they have not be able to find galaxies made up of antimatter it's very confusing as to where it all went.

            Another big part of this article is the fact that antimatter and regular matter can't come in contact because they will annihilate each other. Yes, that's their word. Annihilation occurs in the form of a very bright light. For you movie watchers out there, Hollywood showed their interpretation of this bright light at the end of "The Saint" when they released this antimatter. (Even as I'm writing this I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. It all sounds so science fiction.)

            The fact that they were able to contain this antimatter is a huge breakthrough. The scientists will now be able to start testing this material, or antimaterial, which has the potential to really shake things up as far as the creation of the Universe goes.

            So back to the point I was trying to make. Doesn't that blow your mind? This was a Yahoo.com article, feel free to look it up if you'd like. I'm telling you, I read it at least 3 times and still can't get over how awesome it sounds. Just the words "when the two types of matter meet they annihilate." What a sentence.

            I can't help but think of the movie "Time Cop" starring one of the greatest actors of our time, Jean-Claude Van Damme. Okay, he's a terrible actor but he could kick some serious ass on camera, you can't deny that. The line I'm thinking of is, "The same matter can't occupy the same space at the same time." Now for you nerds out there, I understand that matter and antimatter are not the same and they are in fact exact opposites. It just reminds me of that part in the movie, so relax. I'm talking about the scene in the mansion when the bad guy gets pushed into himself and dissolves. That whole sequence of outdated computer animation was pretty cool back in 1994. Maybe that's what annihilation really looks like. 

          

          By the way, if you never saw the movie "Time Cop", that's just irresponsible.

          So to wrap this up, there are people out there trapping antimatter in magnetic field "bottles" to help solve mysteries about the creation of the Universe. I want you to read that again and realize that there are bigger things going on out there. Next time I'm behind the old Sunoco station getting a Hand-job for a Ham Sandwich I'll have a better perspective on things.