Researchers are preparing to make one of science’s most unusual journeys. They are planning to transport a container of antimatter in a lorry across Europe.
Antimatter is the most expensive material on Earth – it’s estimated it would cost several trillion dollars to make a gram – and it can only be manufactured in particle physics laboratories such as the Cern research centre near Geneva.
It is also extremely tricky to handle. If antimatter makes contact with normal matter, both are annihilated, releasing a powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation. Only by carefully combining sets of powerful electrical and magnetic fields in special devices can antimatter be stored safely.
I seriously hope their containment system actually works, and in case it does not, the amount of antimatter they transport is really, really small. A “container of antimatter” would leave quite a hole in the road, probably right through the earths mantle, and destroying Europe as in “removing the continent from the globe”. For reference: You could simulate the Hiroshima nuclear bomb explosion by freeing about 3-5 grams of antimatter.
