The theorized method could make this replicated martini a reality (via Star Trek screen cap)
Star Trek is known for the show’s technological marvels, including traveling faster than light, ‘beaming’ from one location to another instantly and of course, replicating everything from weapons to food in an instant. The idea of replicating food and objects surely seemed ‘out there’ by our technological standards, however a new take on an old theory may bring replicator technology closer to becoming a reality.
Back in 1934 theoretical physicists, Gregory Breit and John Wheeler (who later had a hand in building the atomic bomb) composed a theory that if you smashed two photon particles together, they would create an electron and a positron. In other words, turning light into matter. Their calculations were proved to be sound, however there has never been any practical way to prove their theory without the addition of massive high-energy particles. At least until now.
Three scientists from the Imperial College in London have found a way to prove the ‘Breit-Wheeler process’ in a laboratory setting without the need for additional particles, using what they call a ‘photon-photon collider’. The collider makes use of existing technology, including a high-intensity laser and gold ‘bling’ (because even photon colliders need to represent--actually, it’s just a slab) to create matter. The process starts by using the powerful laser to speed up the electrons just shy of the speed of light.
Once the desired speed is achieved, they are then slammed into the gold , which turns the electrons into a beam of super-energetic photons a billion times more energetic than the speed of light. The scientists then take the laser and fire it into the center of a gold can (AKA a hohlraum), which creates a thermal radiation field and generates light similar to stars. Remember that photon beam created by the gold bling? The scientists take that beam and direct it into the center of the gold can which causes the super-energetic photons to collide with the gold-blasted thermal radiation field to produce electrons and positrons when exiting the can.
Sounds exciting but there’s one small problem, the scientists haven’t yet created their photon-photon collider to see if the theory is sound, but be rest-assured that the race to build one is on. The only time the Breit-Wheeler process was successfully produced was back in 1997 when researchers from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre produced electron and positron pairs by using electrons to create high-energy photons, which were then repeatedly smashed together (because one smashing is never enough).
The prospect of actually creating a Star Trek replicator will still be out of our reach, even with this new process of turning light into matter, as they still need a way to coalesce the particles into solid objects. Still, it’s one-step closer than we were.
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