The topic of antimatter will be introduced by recalling its prediction and discovery in the 1930’s, and a brief history of the subject will be given.
Positrons have since found numerous applications in material science, engineering and medicine based upon their annihilation with electrons, their matter equivalent particle. A few examples will be described.
Recently, physicists have learnt how to create atoms of antihydrogen under controlled conditions in vacuum. These experiments will be described as well as the motivation for undertaking them. The latter will involve one of nature’s great conundrums: the absence of bulk antimatter in the current epoch of the Universe.