New twist in antimatter mystery (BBC) {more asymmetry ! }

[eppur_se_muova]

By Paul Rincon
Science editor, BBC News website

Physicists have taken a step forward in their efforts to understand why the Universe is dominated by matter, and not its shadowy opposite antimatter.

A US experiment has confirmed previous findings that hinted at new phenomena outside our understanding of physics.

The results show that certain matter particles decay differently from their antimatter counterparts.

Such differences could potentially help explain why there is so much more matter in the cosmos than antimatter.

The findings from scientists working on the CDF experiment have been presented at a particle physics meeting in La Thuile, Italy.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17200308

[Vincardog]

1. Any bets on this being the source of the dark energy accelerating the expansion of everything?

[longship]

3. Not likely

Anti-matter is just matter except having opposite charge. We don't know what dark matter is but we can eliminate ordinary matter (which includes anti-matter) since dark matter does not act like ordinary matter (including anti-matter).

Ordinary matter is visible because it responds to the electromagnetic force. Dark energy does not so it is invisible. Instead, it putatively responds to the weak nuclear force.

[Ratty]

2. Reminds me of a SF story

In the course of events some astronauts and their ship were converted instantly to antimatter. They were fine for a while but in a few days they began to sicken and eventually died. Antimatter chemical reactions were just the tiniest bit different than normal matter and eventually that slight difference killed them.

[macllyr]

4. Anvil of stars

"Anvil of stars" by Greg Bear

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anvil_of_Stars

Mac L'lyr

[Ratty]

5. Hey, that's the one

Gotta be one of my top five favorite SF books of all time