On this day in 1932, Caltech physicist Carl Anderson discovered the

positron, the first particle of antimatter to be identified. Anderson had not

set out to hunt antimatter. He had built a cloud chamber to determine the
composition of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that rain down from
space. The instrument included a magnet, which allowed Anderson to
determine whether particles passing through were positively or negatively
charged, and a lead plate to slow the particles down. Anderson took
hundreds of photographs of tracks taken by cosmic ray particles, but he
was stymied by tracks like the one in this post. The curve of the trajectory
suggested the particle was positively charged yet far less massive than a
proton. An editor at the journal Physical Review suggested the name
positron, since the particle was resembled a positively charged electron.
Only later did Anderson realize that the positron was identical to the
electron except for the opposite charge—Paul Dirac had predicted the
existence of such an antiparticle in 1931. Anderson was awarded the 1936
Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.
CARL DAVID ANDERSON