After 80 years of painstaking experimentation, scientists have directly observed a sub-atomic particle that is its own antiparticle. The breakthrough promises a leap forward in quantum computing and potentially shows the path to finding dark matter. The particles are called the Majorana fermions, after the Italian scientist who proposed their existence back in 1937. Quantum theory was in its infancy... 

Researchers in London have found a way to make matter from light, using high powered lasers. The idea behind the theory was first thought up 80 years ago by two physicists, who were to work later on creating the world’s first atomic bomb. In 1934, US physicists Gregory Breit and John Wheeler worked out that, on very rare occasions, two particles of light (photons) could combine to produce an electron... 

Part of the ALPHA experiment at CERN. Some 309 antihydrogen atoms have been created by ALPHA Collaboration in Switzerland and stored in a magnified cylinder up to about 17 minutes for the first time in the history of science. The Geneva-based international team of scientists working in CERN announced on Tuesday that storing the antimatter atoms up to 1000 seconds (nearly 17 minutes) is a great step... 

The natural tendency of matter and of all energy is toward greater disorder — not toward greater order or complexity as evolution would teach. The only way this tendency can be overcome is if there is a directing code and mechanism. For example, when a seed develops into a tree it does so only because there is a pre-existing energy converting mechanism and code (genetic program) in the seed... 

Using our current technology, it would take 180,000 years to reach Zarmina. But our resident physicist Dave Goldberg has a more optimistic estimate – thanks to antimatter and time dilation, astronauts could get there in just a few years. Dave calculates that, if we could build a stellar drive that gets its fuel from matter-antimatter explosions, then it would be possible to travel to Zarmina...