Just read this article
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117193019.htm

I wonder how much energy did they input into producing positrons, and what is the possible output from gama rays.
Could this be yet another alternative energy source?

From reading the article, they are using an old method but a new detector, doesn’t say how they are going to capture and store them which is the major challenge.

Matter/Antimatter reactions can produce a lot of energy, the problem is controlling the reaction and extracting the energy into a useful form.

If Antimatter can be made cheaply and efficiently (currently the most costly material to make) something along the lines of $100 Trillion a gram.

It is potentially capable of being an energy source, but I see its future more in line with deep space propulsion (not warp drive), but an antimatter rocket.

I think antimatter is more properly viewed just as hydrogen or batteries should be viewed.  That is as an energy storage medium.  You have to make the hydrogen from some other energy source and you have to charge your batteries from something.  Just so, you have to have an energy source to make antimatter.

  That having been said, it is the densest energy storage medium concievable and would be invaluable as a propellant in space. Just as Annodomini2 suggested.

I believe it could be not just an energy storage medium, but also an energy source.
It depends how the conversion is done.
I don’t have an idea about the underlying physics, as wikipedia does not seem to cover it well,
but if normal matter is converted to antimatter by
input of less energy than the output of antimatter annihilation, that means we do have an energy source.
It should not break the 2 law of thermodynamics, because we do loose matter in the process.
And there could be no need for capture and storage - just generate antimatter on demand.
PS:Its not just new detector, its also thicker gold layer.

So far Jimmy T is correct in that antimatter is more of an energy currency than an actual energy source. To produce even the smallest microscopic quantities by today’s methods is far too energy intensive. You have to use a tremendous amount of energy to accelerate a conventional proton close to the speed of light before striking a target. When it does, all that energy used to drive the accelerator and cause the proton to become more massive is enough to create another whole entire proton ...... the anti - reversed mirror image of it, that is.

  But if somebody has found a more energy efficient way to convert conventional matter, I would really love to hear about it. That would really be an exciting breakthrough ! ! !

It would indeed be the most dense energy storage medium. About the only other thing I know of that might come close to that kind of density is nuclear isomers.

I just got finished reading the Science Daily article. Very fascinating indeed (as science officer Pointy Ears would always say as his most famous saying while cruising with Kirk and Scott at warp speed).

  Which raises still yet another possibility for laser fusion ? If laser induced antimatter production causes enough antimatter to react with normal matter, could the energy release be enough to heat and compress a thermonuclear fuel enough to ignite ? Hmmm ...... very intrigueing possibilities ?

Problem is, to make fusion this way you would have to somehow efficiently convert the gamma ray energy into thermal energy. Otherwise, most of the highly penetrating gamma rays would just zip right out of the nuclear fuel and travel a zillion miles before ever being absorbed by something.

Ok, so I admit I’m on an endless roll of antimatter posting here ! ! !

  But I just decided that I would also like to mention one more thing. According to Charles Cagle of Singularity Technologies, the hydrogen bomb does not really work by hot fusion quite so much as originally believed. The H - Bomb worked so well until it blinded physicists as to how it really works, according to Cagle. His own theory is that the highly energetic gamma rays emitted from the plutonium fission detonation causes space - time in the near vicinity of an energetic gamma ray to shrink. This slowing down of the rate of time by an energetic gamma ray weakens the electrostatic coulomb charge enough for two nuclei to come into close enough proximity to each other. In other words, the gamma ray is the real catalyst for neutralizing the repulsive coulomb charge, not the high temperature. At least according to the thermonuclear theory put forth by Cagle.

  Now just substitute intense gamma rays from laser induced antimatter in place of the plutonium fission gamma rays and you get a basic idea of what might be possible. In other words, a highly energetic gamma ray might be a nuclear fusion catalyst without it necessarily having to be first converted into thermal energy.

However, this method of antimatter assisted nuclear fusion may not be workable or compatible with the FF device. It may be more compatible with laser implosion fuel pellet type of fusion method. But it seems very wasteful, extravagant and expensive to try and coat heavy hydrogen pellets with that much gold. So for now at least, this remains another one of my half - baked ” out - of - the - box ” ideas for fusion ...... at least until some as yet unforseen breakthrough works the bugs out of this particular approach.

Like I’ve already stated, this idea about antimatter assisted fusion is just a basic, crude and unrefined idea ...... good for general academic discussion only ...... not to be taken too serious until future breakthroughs or further refinement bring it closer to reality. For one thing, although 100 Billion positrons may sound like a lot, it’s just a puny and trifling drop in the bucket compared to how many would have to be produced to initiate fusion in a deutrium/tritium fuel pellet.