British Association: Why Scotty isn't beaming

STAR TREK fans can have the good news: powering a starship would require only 20kg (44lb) of antimatter,says Professor Frank Close, a director at the European particle accelerator facility CERN.

Now the bad news: at our present rates of production of antimatter, it would take 10,000 times longer than recorded history to produce that amount, he said. So far, less than a millionth of a gram of antimatter has been produced. Next year, CERN opens an "antimatter factory" to make 2,000 atoms of antihydrogen per hour.