Antimatter in Science Fiction vs Reality: What Star Trek and Movies Get Wrong

Antimatter in Science Fiction vs Reality: What Star Trek and Movies Get Wrong

This video explores the real science of antimatter and contrasts it with its dramatic portrayals in sci-fi like Star Trek and Lost in Space. It explains that antimatter is not a threat to Earth, as it is extremely rare and difficult to produce. The video also covers how antimatter is studied at CERN, its properties, and why it cannot be used as a practical energy source. It addresses common misconceptions and highlights the mystery of why the universe has more matter than antimatter.

Antimatter in Sci-Fi Rundown. | Transcript:

This video is sponsored by My Heritage. More about them at the end. Engineers log. Standard date 2025 0130. I've safely returned to the ship after a visit to the Antimatter factory in Geneva, Switzerland. In my absence, I left the crew with some antimatter themed books and movies to entertain them. I just hope they didn't take these fictional works too literally and confuse fact with antifact. Ah, it's good to be back. Computer status report. You have received 42 messages in the last hour from crew members who seem concerned about the safety of this mission. What? Explain. Many crew members viewed the original Star Trek episode, The Alternative Factor, in which Captain Kirk confronts the

parallel universe version of Lazarus, who says that when identical matter and antimatter particles meet, the entire universe explodes. Antimatter here. Yes. And if identical particles meet, the end of everything. Civilization existence all gone. This theme also shows up in the 1960s version of Lost in Space, where in one episode, John Robinson is taken captive by his double from an alternate antimatter universe. Now, I wonder what ever happened to that antimatter man. The worlds are once again in balance. Wherever he is, he is in the anti-atter world and not here. I'd better straighten this out. Attention all crew. It seems that some of you have gotten carried away with the antimatter entertainment package and didn't read the full briefing on

antimatter. While at the antimatter factory, I met with Professor Jeffrey Hankst, who's been studying antimatter at CERN for more than 20 years, and he provided me with valuable insight that should put your concerns to rest. Computer, commence broadcast of Jeffrey Hanks's antimatter briefing. Antimatter, an extremely rare and volatile substance first discovered back in 1932. When in contact with an equal amount of normal matter, it will annihilate, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. But contrary to its depiction in sci-fi, it doesn't come from an alternate universe and is not a threat to ours. This is really everyday physics uh physics or antimatter. There's nothing exotic about it really. I mean, we

understand how this stuff behaves. And of course, we're looking more carefully, but you should understand that it's an everyday thing. Even bananas produce antimatter from the natural radioactive decay of tiny amounts of potassium 40, but only at a rate of one anti-electron every 75 minutes or so. Every known type of charged particle in our universe has an oppositeely charged twin called its anti-particle. And so far, observations of antimatter show that it's identical to normal matter, just oppositeely charged. If I found some antimatter out there, like say an asteroid comes floating by and happens to be composed of antimatter, how would I know? According to current theory, the atoms and molecules in that

anti-aststeroid would obey the same laws of physics. So, it would have the same color as the equivalent substances that we know about. But since we haven't found anything like an antimatter asteroid to get antimatter from, it has to be manufactured. That's why the antimatter factory was created to study how antimatter behaves under the influence of light and gravity. Is it really true that particles and antiparticles are opposite but equal? Is there something different about these two not predicted by current theory that we've completely overlooked? So, as you can see, there's nothing to worry about, and any sightings of lookike stick people should be reported to the copyright department. Broadcast

terminated. Ah, glad that's sorted out. Any more updates, computer? There is a message from the engineering team inquiring about using any of the facto's extra antimatter in our engines. They cite the short story called Collision Orbit from 1942, in which antimatter was mined from asteroids for its use as an energy source. Ah, I'll sort this out. Attention engineering. I understand your inclination to use antimatter as an energy source instead of relying on YouTube AdSense. And yes, I know this seems like it makes sense. When a particle and its antimatter twin meet, they annihilate one another. And according to E= MC² convert all of their mass to energy, which gets released as

new particles and light. But Professor Hankst assured me this wasn't a viable energy source. One gram of antihydrogen could launch a space shuttle. It would be an amazing source of energy if you knew how to handle it. That's the only case in which you have antimatter as an energy source. If you found some if you try to make antimatter, it takes much, much, much more energy than you would ever get out of it. So, for now, if we really need another way to keep this ship moving, you'll have to look for extra resources on planet Patreon. Attention, priority one message from security. What? What does it say? The security team is inquiring about the security risk antimatter may pose to the ship and whether or not they should

begin screening incoming shuttles for antimatter. Let me guess, that movie where the Illuminati steals enough antimatter to blow up Vatican City. Affirmative. Angels and Demons was both a novel and a movie matching that premise. Attention security. There's no cause for alarm with regards to antimatter. I asked Professor Hankst about angels and demons. That was inspired by our work here. The idea they came, they CERN, they stole antimatter, they used it to threaten the Vatican. And if you had a gram of antimatter, you could indeed blow up the Vatican. Doing what we do here, it would take longer than the age of the universe to make one

gram of antimatter. Okay? And it would take more energy than we know about in all the Earth's reserves. We can accumulate about 20,000 atoms at once. 20,000 atoms. It's a huge quantity for us, but macicroscopically it's nothing. You can't even warm up something. Computer, how much energy would that release? The annihilation of 20,000 hydrogen atoms and 20,000 anti-hydrogen atoms would release a total of 6 microJou of energy, an amount 1,000 times smaller than a common electrostatic shock. There, see, nothing to worry about. And let me stop you before you ask about the antimatter laser from Rocky Horror Picture Show computer. Could an antimatter laser be

produced at the antimatter factory? Proposed specification is not possible. Explain. Lasers are made of photons, particles of light which have no charge. Since the opposite of zero is zero, an anti-photon is the same thing as a regular photon. However, the antimatter factory does use lasers to study how antimatter interacts with light, or in other words, what color it is. We're studying atoms of anti-hydrogen. We're trying to study their internal structure, and that means shining laser light on them to see what kind of light they absorb. And the color of the light is the frequency of the radiation. So,

we compare the frequency of our light to the frequency standard. Oh, this is actually really interesting. The professor said that so far their laser measurements of antihydrogen seem to match up with normal hydrogen. And in recent years, they've also studied how antimatter reacts to gravity. And those measurements don't show any difference either. But I mean, you never know, right? Maybe they just need more precise measurements. Or maybe Hello. H alert. Inconsistency detected. Computer, state the source of the issue. logical inconsistency with regards to antimatter. If the properties of antimatter are identical to normal matter, then they should have been produced in equal quantities at the

beginning of the universe. But if that were true, then why didn't the 50-50 split of matter and antimatter annihilate back into a universe of nothing? Does not compute. Ah, yes, the great mysteries of the universe. That mysterious imbalance suggests there must be some difference between matter and antimatter that still hasn't been discovered. if they ever wonder if they'll ever find it down. A difference between matter and antimatter would be fundamentally revolutionary. You know, this is one of the biggest open questions about the nature of the universe. We simply don't know why nature chose matter over antimatter. We don't have a really good idea. And that's what motivates us. That's what inspires us is this mythical

behavior of this stuff that no one can explain. Sounds like you have the best job. I tell that to anyone who will listen. I don't know what else I would do, you know. Thank you to My Heritage for supporting Minute Physics. My Heritage is a website for exploring and building your family history and finding out who you are related to. The 33 plus billion historical documents on My Heritage helps me discover that one of my ancestors was an Apple Eyebook and another an Atari 400. I am related to them through adoption since computers cannot reproduce like humans. In all seriousness though, My Heritage helps you find new records of your ancestors,

adoptive or genetic, and build out your family history. For example, I put in my dad and his parents' names and birth dates. And My Heritage quickly found a bunch of other matching family trees and family members, census records, marriage licenses, etc. The point is, even if you don't know much about your family's origins, or especially if you don't know much, My Heritage can help find new records with little effort. Start exploring your family tree with a 14-day free trial at the link in the description. Thank you, My Heritage. I wonder if I have any abacus relatives. Does not compute. This is the most ridiculous narration I've ever done.

The system is D.

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