title: The Mystery of the Missing Antimatter (Science Essentials)
author:  Helen R. Quinn 
description: Using remarkably clear prose and analogies drawn from everyday experience (hunting for rabbits, waves crashing into a sea wall), physicists Quinn and Nir (of the Stanford Linear Accelerator and the Weizman Institute in Israel, respectively) examine both historical and cutting-edge research into particle physics, the study of the most basic components of the universe-including both matter and antimatter, the universal imbalance of which provides one of the discipline's central puzzles (and this book's title). A thorough account, this examination takes readers through the basics (physical constants, the expanding universe, "What is Matter?") before breaking out concepts like neutrinos and quarks, rules of energy and symmetry, and dark matter. Quinn, an active participant in the particle physics community since the 1960s, contributes charming personal accounts that present pioneering researchers and their work in endearingly human terms, capturing well the club's excitement over particularly important discoveries. Though it's far from light reading, this book is will prove highly stimulating and illuminating for anyone who ever wondered, "Just what is dark matter anyway?" without realizing that even physicists don't know yet. A time line of particle physics discoveries is usefully appended, but a bibliography is missed. <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: Star Trek Deep Space 9
  
  8
  
  Antimatter
  
  CHAPTER
  
  1
  
  SUNK DEEP IN A GIANT PIT was an Ambassador-class
  
  starship, looking as if it was about to be swallowed
  
  whole. An intricate network of walkways and
  
  turbolifts spanned its gleaming hull, and workers
  
  swarmed over the helpless ship like hungry ants. The
  
  scene reminded Benjamin Sisko of the Lilliputians
  
  who tied down Gulliver and crawled all over him. But
  
  even if the shackles were removed, this sleeping giant
  
  was not about to rise, not for another few days. It was
  
  missing the most crucial element of its being, the
  
  thing that would give it life and send it streaking
  
  across the galaxy, the most dangerous substance ever
  
  discovered antimatter.
  
  "Isn't it magnificent?" said Kira Nerys beside him.
  
  "It's so thrilling to see the Okana Shipyards open
  
  again. You don't know it, Commander, but this ship-
  
  yard has seen centuries of history. Songs have been
  
  written about it, and plays. We're very proud of it."
  
  "Impressive," answered Sisko