EVERYDAY ANTIMATTER

contains potassium, so even you are generating antimatter.

And ever heard of a PET scan? That stands for positron emission tomography. It’s a medical imaging technique where doctors inject you with a small radioactive dye that gives off positrons. The positrons immediately annihilate in your bloodstream, and by detecting the gamma rays they emit, doctors can map your circulatory system – even the inner structure of your brain.

ANTIMATTER SOUNDS like something right out of science fiction – probably because it is. In Star Trek, it was the fuel for the USS Enterprise. In Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons it was the stuff threatening to blow up Vatican City. Yet antimatter is not as exotic as it sounds. In fact, it’s all around you.

A banana, for instance, produces a positron about every 40 minutes (through the decay of a particular potassium isotope). Your body also