High energy physics is one of the leading fields that drives scientific progress forward. Studying antimatter is particularly cool, because at the face value it is one of the most efficient ways to store energy (Basically 100% of matter gets converted to energy). Now if only we could figure out a way to cheaply produce it without relying on fossil fuels.
The lack of antimatter is an enduring mystery. And creating it is always cool. And I find it particularly fun to imagine anti-matter fusion plants producing anti-helium (more bang for your buck antimatter :-).
"How should we make it attractive for them [young people] to spend 5,6,7 years in our field, be satisfied, learn about excitement, but finally be qualified to find other possibilities?" -- H. Schopper<p>The numbers make the problem clear. In 2007, the year before CERN first powered up the LHC, the lab produced 142 master's and Ph.D. theses, according to the lab's document server. Last year it produced 327. (Fermilab chipped in 54.) That abundance seems unlikely to vanish anytime soon, as last year ATLAS had 1000 grad students and CMS had 900.<p>In contrast, the INSPIRE Web site, a database for particle physics, currently lists 124 postdocs worldwide in experimental high-energy physics, the sort of work LHC grads have trained for.<p>Let's not confuse students and fellows with missing staff. [...] Potential missing staff in some areas is a separate issue, and educational programmes are not designed to make up for it. On-the-job learning and training are not separated but dynamically linked together, benefiting to both parties. In my three years of operation, I have unfortunately witnessed cases where CERN duties and educational training became contradictory and even conflicting.<p><a href="http://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2013/06/lets-not-confuse-students-and-fellows-missing-staff" rel="nofollow">http://ombuds.web.cern.ch/blog/2013/06/lets-not-confuse-stud...</a><p>An unsatisfactory contract policy<p>This will be difficult for LD staff to cope with. Indeed, even while giving complete satisfaction, they have no forward vision about the possibility of pursuing a career<p><a href="http://staff-association.web.cern.ch/content/unsatisfactory-contract-policy" rel="nofollow">http://staff-association.web.cern.ch/content/unsatisfactory-...</a><p>Pensions which will be applicable to new recruits as of 1 January 2012; the Management and CERN Council adopted without any concertation and decided in June 2011 to adopt very unfavourable mesures for new recruits.<p><a href="http://www.gac-epa.org/History/Bulletins/42-2012-04/Bulletin42-en.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.gac-epa.org/History/Bulletins/42-2012-04/Bulletin...</a><p>And a warning to non-western members:<p>"The cost [...] has been evaluated, taking into account realistic labor prices in different countries. The total cost is X (with a western equivalent value of Y) [where Y>X]<p>source: LHCb calorimeters : Technical Design Report<p>ISBN: 9290831693 cdsweb.cern.ch/record/494264
Here's two cool thing about this experiment: Normal Hydrogen atoms do respond to magnetic field feebly. They feel repulsion while travelling in a field gradient. Anti hydrogen has same property and that's how you keep it away from normal matter.<p>Second, they were able to produce 25 anti-Hydrogen atoms per hour. They measured total 80 of those. A long way from anti-matter weapons :).