Is antimatter science fact or science fiction?
It sounds far out, but antimatter is firmly grounded in science. Antimatter is the weird mirror of ordinary matter. The proton and every subatomic particle has a corresponding antiparticle with equal mass but opposite properties. The antiproton, for example, has a negative charge. The antielectron, called a positron, has a positive charge. This is an example of theory coming before observation. Physicist Paul Dirac predicted the existence of antimatter from calculations he did with pencil and paper in the 1920s. Scientists at University of California, Berkeley, discovered the positron in the 1930s. The discovery of the antiproton came in the 1950s. The lore of antimatter developed because of the terrific power that matter-antimatter collisions unleash. When matter collides with its antimatter twin, the two particles annihilate — that is, they transform into pure energy. This is 100% efficient; no “ash” remains. Burn a piece of paper, and you will get energy (fire) plus ash. Even nucle
