Word: antiproton
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...positive electrons exist, why not negative protons? Scientists searched for them for years in cosmic rays, but found only a few doubtful cases. They hoped to create them in the laboratory, but no existing cyclotron had enough power. It took the Berkeley Bevatron to create an antiproton out of energy. Like the positron, it, too, appears only paired with an ordinary proton, and destroys itself as soon as it collides with a proton...
Anti-Matter. With the antiproton found, scientists assume that "antimatter" is possible-a symmetrical "mirror image" with all the outward characteristics of ordinary matter but with its electrical charges reversed. Obviously, antimatter could not exist within reach of ordinary matter as it exists on earth. But it may even be common in other parts of the universe. Some of the distant galaxies may be made of such reversed matter. The light from a star of antimatter, says Professor Frisch, would be just like the light from normal stars...
...universe was formed in a vast, single explosion. "The universe," explains Professor Frisch,"must have been very dense at first, and annihilation would have weeded out all but one kind of matter." But for those who hold that matter is being created continuously in space between the galaxies, the antiproton is more of a problem. Their theory will have to explain, says Professor Frisch, why only one kind of matter is being created...
...Antiprotons were created last fall by the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Bevatron, at Berkeley, Calif., but they could be detected only indirectly by a complicated electronic method (TIME, Oct. 31). Scientists wanted to "see" them by one of the more direct methods that they use to make subatomic particles visible. So the Berkeley scientists shot antiprotons from their great machine into a stack of photographic films. Their hope was that they would find microscopic tracks in the films that could be identified as the work of an antiproton...
...wheel-like star tells what happens when one of the alien particles is annihilated. The antiproton (P¯ ) enters from the left. It is moving fast at first, but gradually slows down and merges with the nucleus of some unfortunate atom. There it combines with a proton or neutron, and both particles vanish, turning into 1,876 million electron volts of energy. The resulting explosion-extremely violent on the atomic scale-drives off fast-moving fragments that trace the lines of the star...