The fission of nuclei (let’s call it “nuclear technology” although it occurs in specific materials long before our species manages to turn it into a weapon) is the practical proof that matter is converted into energy and light. Can the opposite ever happen?
An experiment currently underway in Shanghai aims to achieve it. The “Station of Extreme Light” is a laser production facility designed to generate lasers with a power of 100 petawatts (one petawatt equals one quadrillion watts). When the facility becomes operational (estimated in 2 years), this laser will have energy 10,000 times greater than the entire electrical grids of the planet. With this energy, it will be able to produce matter and antimatter from the vacuum of space.
How? The vacuum is not absolute. It includes pairs of positrons (“antimatter”) and electrons (matter) which however cancel each other out. The laser can prevent this
mutual annihilation and cause the emission of gamma rays from these elementary particles, which will create more electrons and positrons. If there is a minimum concentration of them, detectable matter and antimatter will have emerged.
And what is the value of all this story? According to Andrei Seryi, director of the John Adams Institute at Oxford University, it is great: Will we be able in the future to convert energy into time and time into energy?
How did you say it?