High School Antimatter Creation: Michio Kaku's High School Experiment

[ISamson]

Hello,
I have read that Michio Kaku has made antimatter and photographed it when he was only a high schooler. I have read that the used Sodium-22 to produce positrons. How does that happen? I could not find some good sources of answers...
Thanks.

 

[mfb]

I have read

Where? It is hard to tell what exactly the source said without seeing the source.

Sodium-22 undergoes beta+ decay, which means it emits positrons. You don't have to do anything, you just have to find a way to get enough sodium-22. You cannot really photograph these positrons, directly, but you can let them produce tracks in detectors (e. g. cloud chambers) and take a picture of these tracks.

 

[vanhees71]

Indeed, the most interesting question is, where I high schooler could get sodium-22? Nowadays the safety guidelines at high schools even under supervision of a teacher are such that it is almost impossible for the students to make interesting experiments (at least in Germany). I cannot imagine that it is allowed to handle even harmless portions of any radioactive material...

 

[Bandersnatch]

Where? It is hard to tell what exactly the source said without seeing the source.

Huh. I looked it up. According to what he wrote in his 'Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey...' he managed to purchase sodium-22, and build a cloud chamber, and a betatron in his garage. As a high school student, on a budget.
https://books.google.pl/books?id=kF...page&q=michio kaku sodium 22 positron&f=false

 

[vanhees71]

LOL. When was this?

 

[mfb]

Born 1947, so around 1965 I guess.

 

[ISamson]

Indeed, the most interesting question is, where I high schooler could get sodium-22? Nowadays the safety guidelines at high schools even under supervision of a teacher are such that it is almost impossible for the students to make interesting experiments (at least in Germany). I cannot imagine that it is allowed to handle even harmless portions of any radioactive material...

He said he went to a local nuclear research company...