Inside CERN's Antimatter Factory

During my CERN IdeaSquare traineeship, we visited the Antimatter Factory — where antimatter is produced and studied. Seeing it firsthand was surreal.
For every particle there's an antiparticle with the same mass but opposite charge; when they meet, they annihilate into energy (E = mc²). The Big Bang should have created both in equal amounts — so why is our universe dominated by matter? It's one of the biggest unanswered questions in science.
- Produce antimatter in controlled conditions
- Trap and store it with electromagnetic fields
- Measure its properties with extreme precision
- Compare antimatter to matter to test fundamental symmetries
As a computer science student, standing inside a facility investigating the origins of existence itself was humbling. CERN doesn't just explore particles — it explores why we exist at all.
