Teenagers dream of antimatter: Can you help?
March 26, 2008 | 7:24 am
Updated March 29, 2008 (see below for first offer of help)
When many teenagers come home from astronomy camp, they want to become astronauts, with dreams of being the first to visit something beyond the Moon. Heidi Baumgartner, Peter Heuer, and German Diagama came home from camp two years ago with a different dream: to be the first teenagers to create antimatter.
Heidi had drawings of particle accelerators in her journal, which inspired Peter to ask, “Why don’t we build one?” In the years since, their plans have developed and they spent their free time at camp last summer in the library digging for information to help in their quest to build a cyclotron. (The first cyclotron ever built was featured on the cover of symmetry in August 2007 and in the Life List story in that issue.)
The rough schematic drawing Heidi sketched, shown here, includes some of the main parts of the cyclotron. She also has a bunch of more technical drawings and details.
David Harris
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When was the last time you spotted a cartoon that sincerely explained a scientific concept? Earlier this month, cartoon character “Brewster Rockit: Space Guy” received a science lecture on “Our Missing Universe.” Rockit is the dim captain of space station R.U. Sirius. A crew member tells him about dark matter and dark energy, the “ninety-six percent of the universe that’s missing.” As always, Rockit comes back with a lame response. (Well, the cartoon “pushes the limits of space, time and humor,” according to its Web site.) The 
arch 16, in newspapers across the country, syndicated by Tribune Media Services.
