Scientists to Transport Dangerous Antimatter From Switzerland to Germany for the First Time

Researchers are preparing to make one of the most unusual journeys in the history of science. They plan to transport a container of antimatter in a truck across Europe for the first time in history. The Guardian writes about it.

Antimatter is the most expensive material on Earth - it is estimated that it would cost several trillion dollars to produce one gram of it. And it can only be produced in special laboratories, such as the CERN research centre in Switzerland.

Antimatter is also extremely difficult to deal with. If it comes into contact with ordinary matter, it produces a powerful emission of electromagnetic radiation, i.e. an explosion.

‘This makes it very difficult to move it around, although we are close to making our first journey. Antimatter can tell us so much. That's why we're doing this,’ said CERN scientist Professor Stefan Ulmer.

Scientists reassure that the prospect of an explosion during the transport of antimatter is unlikely, because the amount of antimatter being transported is not enough.

To transport antimatter, CERN scientists have built transport devices containing superconducting magnets, cryogenic cooling systems and vacuum chambers in which antimatter can be kept, avoiding contact with ordinary matter. The transport will be carried out by seven-tonne trucks.

Initially, the substance will be transported within CERN, and next year the containers will be moved further to a special laboratory at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany.

‘In the long term, we want to transport it to any laboratory in Europe,’ said Christian Smorra, the transport project manager.

Scientists want to study antimatter because they believe it may hold the answer to a fundamental mystery of the universe. Physicists want to study the differences between matter and antimatter particles, which may provide an answer to why the former began to dominate the universe.