Scott Wilkes, another LLNL scientist, thinks that on-demend positrons could be used to eventually create a gamma laser which could theoretically be used to destroy incoming missiles, as well as for medical treatments. But one has never been built. Chen thinks that the positrons could be used to improve resolutions in large particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider under Geneva, Switzerland. The positrons would act like a kind of strobe light to take more accurate pictures of subatomic particles as they are produced Matter and antimatter are produced in equal amounts. Yet the majority of the universe is made of matter, explains Beiersdorfer. By observing matter and anti-matter interactions, astrophysicists can gain a better understanding of why antimatter vanished after the Big Bang. Meyerhoffer thinks that the technique could eventually produce a positron-electon plasma similar to what physicists think lies at the center of the universe's brightest objects -- split-second-long gamma ray bursts. The next set of experiments could help with all of those uses. The University of Rochester recently installed a new high-energy laser, the Omega EP, which carries about 20 times the power of the Titan laser. Scientists expect the Omega laser will produce even more positrons than the Titan laser starting next year. Wherever they are produced, the positrons won't be dangerous. In the upcoming film "Angels and Demons," based on the best-selling Dan Brown book, a gram of stolen antimatter, or about 10 with 26 zeros after it, threatens to blow up the Vatican. Right now the physicists can only produce about 10 with nine zeros after it. An antimatter bomb a la Dan Brown, says Chen, is "unrealistic." "We want people to be interested and understand that we are not creating anything harmful," said Chen. "There are so many fundamental parts of nature that we can now study with this new research."
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