First collisions at the LHC with unprecedented Energy! (Ask a particle physisicist)

[Alex K]

Btw. the huge machine you see in the picture is used to hold just a minuscule amount of Antiatoms at once. The setup from Dan Brown's Angels&Demons is completely impossible with current technology, because it is super-difficult to trap just a few electrically neutral atoms without them touching the walls, let along grams of them.

There's a similar problem with fusion isn't there, creating a reactor that will last long enough. Could it be that doing all these experiments in zero gravity is the key to further progress? Of course the cost of getting out of the Earth's gravity well is too expensive. I can't help thinking that automated asteroid mining is critical to humankind's future.

I don't think gravity is the big factor here. Remember that in a gas at room temperature, the individual molecules making up the gas bounce around at almost 2000 km/h. You either need to cool them to ridiculously low temperatures to have them sit still-ish, or confine them somehow.