Boffins detect antimatter thundering down from Hurricane Patricia

A team of scientists today reported observing beams of antimatter firing from a ferocious hurricane on Earth for the first time. Hurricane Patricia, the second most powerful tropical cyclone recorded so far, ripped through the west coast of Mexico in October 2015 drumming up winds of up to 215 miles per hour. It was the …

[Grikath]

"It’s unwise to get too close to a TGF, ..."

Given that they're generated by serious bolts of lightning..... Yes, yes, I rather think that'd be a good idea...

1km sufficient to render the things Mostly Harmless? Good... That's about as close as I ever want to be to a bolt of lightning again. Thankyouverymuch.

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

Re: "It’s unwise to get too close to a TGF, ..."

"again"? Methinks you have experience the rest of us wish to avoid!

[ravenviz]

Did the researchers fly their plane in a curve, you know, in NOOA’s arc?

[aregross]

Other than spelling "NOAA" wrong, that was a good pun! One Up for you!

[ravenviz]

Other than spelling "NOAA" wrong

I even double checked it and still got it wrong! :-D

[jake]

Wrong FLA ...

The flights on a parabolic curve weren't NOAA's arc, rather they were NASA's barf. Unfortunately, NASA's out of that game now. However, as a civilian, you can contact Zero Gravity Corporation if you're interested in riding the vomit comet ...

[89724102171719271992214I9405670349743096734346773478647852349863592355648544996313855148583659264921]

Fascinating!

Too little radiation and you don't get the chance of potentially beneficial mutations ocurring in living organisms, too much and you get yet another Incredible Hulk manifesting in the pilot's seat to hold captive and experiment on under Area 51.

[John H Woods]

Re: Fascinating!

"Too little radiation and you don't get the chance of potentially beneficial mutations occurring in living organisms" --- [sequence of mainly digits with a hidden 'I']

Pedantic note: there are plenty of sources of mutations even without ionizing radiation, and even without any radiation at all: I should imagine the errors in the genetic processes themselves are a significant cause.

But I have no idea if anyone has attempted to quantify the relative rates associated with relative causes; I can't see anything obvious out there on the web and I'm no longer in academia. Anyone got any ideas?

[IceC0ld]

"It’s unwise to get too close to a TGF, ..."

but the guys in the aircraft go in there anyway

NOT my ideal job TBH

how they can sit at there work stations with cojones that big is beyond me

[eldakka]

Re: "It’s unwise to get too close to a TGF, ..."

> how they can sit at there work stations with cojones that big is beyond me

Specially designed chairs with a gap along the centre-line.

[89724102171719271992224I9405670349743096734346773478647852349863592355648544996313855148583659264921]

HULK ANGRY!!!

Gamma rays up Uranus.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

Re: HULK ANGRY!!!

Must not be a Hulk fan.

Its HULK SMASH!

Or HULK SMASH PUNY HUMAN!

[Kernel]

What I want to know

So, are we in serious danger from anti-matter coming from hurricanes, or should we be more concerned about over exposure to other anti-matter sources, such as bananas?

[IveneverbeenaboffinbeforeandIlikeit]

Re: What I want to know

Neither. But only get a CT scan if your doctor says it's absolutely necessary -- if they seem to think it's optional, say no. That's the biggest dose you're ever likely to encounter short of radiation treatment for cancer.

[Lars]

Re: What I want to know

Instead of a CT scan ask for a MRI.

"Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe and painless test that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed pictures of the body's organs and structures. An MRI differs from a CAT scan (also called a CT scan or a computed axial tomography scan) because it doesn't use radiation."

[Arthur the cat]

Re: What I want to know

Instead of a CT scan ask for a MRI.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe and painless test

Unless like me you have a pacemaker fitted, in which case the effect of the intense pulsed magnetic fields may cause you to inadvertently find yourself LARPing as the victim in an Aztec sacrifice.

I'm not allowed near Teslathons either. :-(

[KBeee]

Re: What I want to know

Even worse if you've got a "Prince Albert" fitted

[Lars]

Re: What I want to know

bananas?

Pleas don't pull Brexit into every thread, anti-matter?.

[Killfalcon]

Re: What I want to know

Bananas are radioactive, but AFAIK aren't noted for containing antimatter.

[Roj Blake]

Re: What I want to know

Bananas are gamma emitters. The gamma radiation is caused by nuclear positron emission.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

Re: What I want to know

Bananas?

Now that old Monty Python sketch makes sense.

;-)

[89724102171719271992224I9405670349743096734346773478647852349863592355648544996313855148583659264921]

If you McFly into them

[John Smith 19]

Surprised they trigger spallation of electrons.

Y'know, antimatter. Hit regular matter and annihilates itself in X & Gamma rays.

OTOH I've not considered relativistic effects. I do recall high energy cosmic rays were found surprisingly low in the atmosphere due to time dilation of their lifetimes.

So. Extreme weather events even more extreme than we thought they were to begin with.

Mind you I'm racking my brains to recall the last hurricane over Denver....

[bombastic bob]

in effect, storms causing nuclear reactions

did Tesla learn about this 100 years ago?

Now I wanna build a million volt Tesla coil to test the theory...

OK now let's speculate on how this might affect a FUSION reaction... if high static potentials can cause electron/positron pair production, what ELSE can you create with it? A wormhole?

heh, mad science rules!

[jake]

Re: in effect, storms causing nuclear reactions

Million volt Tesla coils are easy to make at home. You can probably get a copy of Transtrom's 1913 book Electricity at High Pressures and Frequencies through inter-library loan, should you wish to pursue this. Mine's a second edition, published in 1990 by Lindsay Publications, ISBN 1559180544.

Got curious just before hitting "submit" ... try this link:

https://ia801406.us.archive.org/9/items/electricityathi00trangoog/electricityathi00trangoog.pdf

That should keep you occupied for an hour or three. Have fun :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re. in effect, storms causing nuclear reactions

Pretty sure that you'd need to generate an absurd potential difference (IIRC in the hundreds of TeV) range to create anything like an Einstein-Rosen bridge even on the microscopic scale.

Last I heard scientists were using very high energy lasers but thats not really something you can do as a hobbyist.

[Roj Blake]

"Positrons, the antimatter component of electrons"

I think you mean counterpart, not component.

[Detective Emil]

To boldly blow …

Looking forward to Star Trek: Discovery episode where the ship has to dive into a hurricane to recharge its antimatter banks. Or maybe they're using a multi-cluster quark drive by now.

[Stevie]

Bah!

I just watched the movie "Dunkirk" and read " Hurricane Hunter aircraft" as "Hawker Hurricane aircraft".

Several milliseconds of confusion resulted while mash-up footage of The Battle of Britain/Sharknado ran in Mr Brain.

"Bandits at 2 o'clock, looks like a squadron of great whites! Tally ho!"

[Alistair]

OKay

We have 'anti-matter' particles (positron/neutron pairs) falling out of *really intense* Hurricane Electric? Wont this damage the internets?

Okay, okay - no I won't be here all week with *that* reaction.

The one with "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" in the pocket please.

[David McCoy]

The Mick of Time got there first.

I think phenomena like this was mentioned in Spider Robinson's Callahan's Key which was published back in 2001

[Anonymous Coward]

Antimatter

Interestingly some folks think that antimatter could explain ball lightning.

If indeed the storms are producing more than expected and it self attracts weakly, the BL would behave strangely and might hover near the ground with gravity and electrostatics neatly balancing.

Also it may "fizzle out" due to decay, or explode on contact with some metals but pass through relatively low density objects, due to it being essentially in a Rydberg state.