Antimatter To Go
Physicists have begun a grass roots effort to make Brookhaven National Lab the world’s first source of portable antiprotons. The scientists, led by Syracuse University physicist Theodore Kalogeropoulos, discussed the construction of a $20 million antiproton addition to Brookhavens Alternating Gradient Synchrotron accelerator last month in a workshop at the lab’s usergroup meeting. According to Kalogeropoulos, antiprotons created at the lab could be stored in portable 10-ton superconducting rings and transported to research centers and hospitals. There, the particles might be used to treat tumors and scan parts of the human body using a three-dimensional technique called antiprotonic stereography. Kalogeropoulos believes that antiprotons, may provide higher-resolution scans and cause less damage to surrounding tissues than do X-rays and other particles. The proposal, however, faces an uphill. battle at Brookhaven. “Some of the ideas are interesting and should be looked at,” says accelerator head Derek Lowenstein. “But it’s...
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