[Science] Antimatter! Hurray!

A closeup of the Magnetic Jar used in the CERN experiment
N. MADSEN, ALPHA/SWANSEA via Nature

In the top story for today from Popular Science Magazine, CERN physicists have announced that they've trapped antimatter, specifically anti-hydrogen, for a whopping 17 minutes; a feat that they previously were only able to accomplish for a few hundred milliseconds.

This is a great leap forward for the study of antimatter, which could potentially be the greatest producer of energy in the universe due to its ability to create energy from matter at a 100% conversion rate, a rate about 100 times stronger than a normal hydrogen bomb.

Anti-hydrogen, when coming into contact with hydrogen, completely annihilates the former, producing a huge amount of energy in the process. This exact interaction is what makes antimatter so difficult to store or produce, as any contact with the gases naturally present in the air would cause the antimatter to destroy both itself and the gases it came into contact with. Scientists got around this problem by, obviously, trapping the antimatter in a vacuum, as well as a magnetic field.

Scientists still don't know much about antimatter, they don't even know how gravity affects it. Which makes the success of this experiment all the more valuable and exciting. We're still lightyears away from producing large quantities of antimatter to power engines or the like, but this is a giant step in the right direction! BE EXCITED. I AM.

[Cool Stuff] Airbnb? Why haven't I heard of this before?!

Airbnb, probably the best website ever.

I have no idea how old this website is, but it seems to be very popular, there are listings for my podunk little home town of Chico, CA.

Everybody knows what couch-surfing is right? You go and stay in a stranger's house and sleep on their couch, sometimes in exchange for doing a few chores or just because the person likes the company. Well this site offers users a more structured way of finding people to couch surf on (that sounds dirty), and it allows the renters to charge a (usually) small fee in exchange for their precious house/apartment space. Airbnb even offers to send a professional photographer to your apartment to take pictures for your room/couch/whatever you're renting, completely free of charge! Now that's service!

Airbnb quite possibly might be one of the coolest things that I've ever found on the internet to this date, besides doodoocaca. It's a simple idea that holds a lot of value for both the renter and the tenant, and it opens up the world of couch surfing to a bigger group of people than would normally be interested in this sort of thing.

If I didn't live in a dorm with no way of renting out my space then I would be extremely excited to try my hand at this. Obviously with the lower rates you have to charge this can't replace your normal job or whatever, or maybe it can I don't know your life. Airbnb could probably be one of the greatest sources of supplemental income ever. Except maybe owning a bunch of candy machines, but that's hard to get started...

All I know is that as soon as I'm done with college and I have a place of my own, if this website is still alive and kicking I will most definitely come back and be the biggest and bestest home/hotel/bnb in my city. I'm so excited.