Military, Space Just a bit of antimatter can produce a large amount of power so it could be used for fuel for vehicles There is something called antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion, which uses small antimatter explosions to trigger tiny nuclear explosions. Groups like NASA and the US Army are researching about this so they can use it to fuel spacecraft or to be used for military uses The technology can be used to create small and fission free weapons. Which would result in less contamination than regular nuclear weapons. However, the weapons would cost billions unless there was a more natural way to harvest antimatter from. The quantities needed would be 10-13 a gram of antimatter or 1011 antihydrogen atoms which is definitely more feasible than the amount of antimatter for a pure antimatter weapon. However, even if we could possibly obtain that much antimatter, there is no way to safely store it and make sure nothing goes wrong. Also, the US Air force has been funding research into antimatter weapons since 1983. The 4 categories of antimatter things they researched were: antimatter propulsion, antimatter power generators, direct energy weapons, and classified additional special weapons-Antimatter bombs
Medicine: Positron emission tomography uses anti particles-(positrons) to produce high-resolution images of the body. Positron-emitting elements like potassium release positrons that meet electrons in the body and annihilate. The annihilations produce gamma rays that are used to create images. Scientists at Cern have studied antimatter as a possible candidate for cancer therapy. Physicians have already discovered that they can target tumors with beams of particles that will release their energy after safely passing through human tissue. Using antiprotons will add an extra burst of energy. This technique has already been tested on hamsters and it was a success, but researched have yet to test on human cells
Antimatter Gun Scientists working at the University of Michigan have built an antimatter gun that can sit right on your desk (pesky coworkers beware the day this goes on the market).Yet, although it’s called a “gun,” that word is in quotes for a reason. Really, the device is a mini positron creator. Instead of using the huge particle accelerator at CERN to make positrons, this device can create and “spew short bursts of positrons.”Building on work by researchers at the University of Texas, the team at UM build a device less than a meter long that generates both short bursts of electrons and positrons. Though the emissions last just 30 femtoseconds, they produce quadrillions of positrons. This is a comparable number to those created by the particle accelerator at CERN.So, if we can’t use this to shoot at our desk mates (I’m looking at you, Dave) what’s it good for? Well, the emissions are very similar to what makes up the jet streams from black holes and pulsars. By studying how the device works, questions about the energy composition and how the particles in the streams interact with outside environments can be answered.