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Physicists trap a single antimatter particle for a month

by mooreds | 60 points | 22 comments | 2026-10-21 14:40:01 Central

Open Source Link | Read Source Here

Open on Hacker News

Comments

bozdemir
That's matter cruelty. We need more ethical ways to study
those poor things. Does anyone know what happened after
the experiment ? Did they finally let it go?

  > saidnooneever
I sure hope it doesnt come back for revenge damn
  > gcascio
Matter rights matter.
    > > Scarblac
But antimatter rights antimatter? Or do they
become lefts.

      > > > myaccountonhn
It doesn't matter if it's antimatter.
  > consensus1
It's worse than that. They annihilated it completely.
    > > mixtureoftakes
Drawing the line at matter welfare when the world
still has this much human suffering will never
stop being wild to me

      > > > pelagicAustral
Definitely a matter of perspective.
      > > > saidnooneever
humans are also matter
        > > > > ta8903
But some humans are more matter than the
others.

  > exe34
I was going to comment "I bet it's pissed" and then
worried about drawing dang on myself, but you started
it... Also:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1254917172263794."Wi
ld? I was absolutely livid!"

DoctorOetker
whats up with all the comments making analogies with AI
torture repository?One might measure the "amount of
computation going on" as a proxy for consciousness, but
"number of dissipative logic gates" can't be right since
one can construct larger reversible circuits containing
the same computation (and hence dissipation is a poor
measure), although one could then use the total number of
bits (including trash bits) as the measure.but I don't
understand why particle physics?having all other comments
(at the time of writing) be about consciousness of
individual particles, seems to indicate these commenters
specifically believe particle physics or antimatter to
directly describe consciousness?Or is this some kind of
"disinfo inoculation campaign" to render us immune to
"sentient rights propaganda"?

  > KPGv2
I don't see comments on SI's website. I assume you
mean here. Those are jokes.

dguest
Direct link to article: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08147
jimnotgym
I hope they took precautions against the Camerlengo
stealing it

  > ButlerianJihad
Positrons are just as Catholic as electrons: they both
have the same mass!

snailshare
Does this hurt the positron?
  > brenkc
Call PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of
Antimatter)

    > > sirlancer
Physicists for the Ethical Treatment of Atoms
  > arj
Poor thing, all alone
    > > Razengan
It could have been an entire universe, like ours,
if some theories/cosmologies are correct :)

pizzafeelsright
of course the cyclotron going clockwise.