antimatter n.
matter composed of antiparticles
SF Encyclopedia
Science
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1934 Science News-Letter (vol. 25, no. 672) 24 Feb. 115/2
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The sources behaved in every way like respectable atoms. For the sinks one had to assume a kind of negative or anti-matter. This was the difficult which kept those old theories of matter in the realm of fantastic speculation, although the mathematics was perfect.
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1948
The other type of matter might be called the ‘anti matter.’ In collision the two types of matter would annihilate each other and give rise to intense radiation.
Cosmic Rays & Nuclear Physics 6 -
1953 Science News Letter 14 Mar. 169/1
The existence or creation of anti-matter, or the negative analogue of the proton…is theoretically possible.
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1954
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The only remarkable thing about anti-matter is that if it were brought into contact with ordinary matter a mutual annihilation would take place, with the mass being converted into energy.
Letter in Startling Stories Summer 8/2 -
1959
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Lester del Rey
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The ship must still be equipped with an antique boron-fusion motor; no anti-matter inverter ever made that much racket. But the leap to hyperspeed was smooth, indicating the engineer knew his job.
Mine Host, Mine Adversary in Fantastic Universe Oct. 8/2 -
1966
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Cordwainer Smith
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The beat and the heat and the neat repeat of the notes that poured forth from the congohelium—metal never made for music, matter and anti-matter locked in a fine magnetic grid to ward off the outermost perils of space.
Under Old Earth in Galaxy Science Fiction Feb. 27 -
1970
James Blish
The fireball swelled intolerably as the matter and anti-matter in the doomed Klingon’s warp-drive.
Spock must Die! vii. 52
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1973
Arthur C. Clarke
Nothing whatsoever had happened when the expanding cloud of vapour arrived on target—and a matter anti-matter reaction involving even a few milligrams would have produced an awesome firework display.
Rendezvous with Rama (1974) 20
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1982
Sonni Cooper
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The vehicle had warp potential, a matter/antimatter drive, and a life-support system as sophisticated as any he had ever seen.
Black Fire i.48
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1987
David Brin
At the edge of the forest Athaclena saw their special weapons team begin setting up their only antimatter projectors.
Uplift War 291
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1990
Greg Bear
When the antimatter drive ceased some four years after launch, AXIS entered a cold, quiet mode, its functions reduced to the simplest routine of maintenance, sensing and launch of transponders.
Queen of Angels (1991) .iv. 20
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1993
Diane Carey
The result is highly ionized particles, hard radiation, dust, debris, and an above normal content of residual antimatter.
Great Starship Race ix. 140
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1996
James E. Gunn
It wouldn’t be difficult to jury-rig a device—say an antimatter payload contained within a neutronium shell.
Joy Machine xiv. 209
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1998
The Dooglasse ship…is in fact an antimatter propelled Valkyrie (most relativistic rockets, just like most supersonic transport jets, are bound to look alike).
Afterword in C. Pellegrino & G. Zebrowski Star Trek: Next Generation: Dyson Sphere (1999) 209
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2017
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I know about the Penning traps…along with containment units, the cryogenic equipment and the entire system you built to harvest and store antimatter. That’s why the Nighthawk had a polar orbit. That’s why it stayed in the dark, where the temperatures in space are closer to absolute zero. That’s why it was up there for three years, because it’s a very slow process.”
Nighthawk 264
Research requirements
antedating 1953
Earliest cite
Science News Letter
Research History
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2017 quote from Clive Cussler and Graham Brown's "Nighthawk".Fred Shapiro submitted a 1948 cite from Lajos Jánossy.
Garson O'Toole submitted a 1934 cite from the Science News-Letter.
Last modified 2024-11-17 00:09:25
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