# Antiphotons. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2018, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766 "2018-07-12T06:16:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/1 "2018-07-12T06:16:57Z")
Interesting story. As a little kid, I had all kinds of ideas for inventions. When my cat George died of feline leukemia, I came up with the idea for nanites. They told me he died from an overabundance of white blood cells. So I envisioned little fighter jets in his blood stream killing off the surplus white blood cells. Was I the first to come up with the idea? This would have been around 1980 or so. Another invention was a shade-maker. I thought people should have shade, even in the brightest of environments. At first, I thought of projecting an image of the night sky onto the ground. But of course this wouldn’t make it any darker. Then I came up with the idea of antiphotons. Simply shower the area with antiphotons, and presto! Instant shade. Anyways, this isn’t MPSIMS or even IMHO. I just want two questions answered: Are there antiphotons? And what properties do they have? Was I right? Do they provide instant shade? And actually, more recently I have wondered if they could harm the retina in some way. It’s possible, since you don’t encounter them too often. Or _ **do** _ you? Are they in fact all around us somehow? Thank you in advance for all your kind replies:). And remember, as I pointed out, this is not MPSIMS. I only want the scientific part and question of my post addressed:). 🙂 🙂 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/2 "2018-07-12T06:49:03Z")
Photons are their own antiparticle. If you get two photons that overlap but they are 180 degrees out of phase, they’ll cancel each other out. Of course, the energy of the photons is not destroyed; it’ll show up somewhere else. That is, you’ll still have photons, but they won’t be where they were before. Another way to look at it is that they’ll scatter off each other. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/3 "2018-07-12T08:50:39Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > When my cat George died of feline leukemia, I came up with the idea for nanites. They told me he died from an overabundance of white blood cells. So I envisioned little fighter jets in his blood stream killing off the surplus white blood cells. Was I the first to come up with the idea? This would have been around 1980 or so. I would wager that this idea, in the broad sense in which you’re using it here, would go back at least as far as germ theory and probably much, much older than that. In some rare cases in science & tech a very simple, high-level idea can actually be useful. This isn’t such a case. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/4 "2018-07-12T10:29:08Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > I would wager that this idea, in the broad sense in which you’re using it here, would go back at least as far as germ theory and probably much, much older than that. Or at least until [1966](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eltKPv-n9sk). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/5 "2018-07-12T11:49:28Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > Interesting story. As a little kid, I had all kinds of ideas for inventions. > > When my cat George died of feline leukemia, I came up with the idea for nanites. They told me he died from an overabundance of white blood cells. So I envisioned little fighter jets in his blood stream killing off the surplus white blood cells. Was I the first to come up with the idea? This would have been around 1980 or so. > > Another invention was a shade-maker. I thought people should have shade, even in the brightest of environments. At first, I thought of projecting an image of the night sky onto the ground. But of course this wouldn’t make it any darker. > > Then I came up with the idea of antiphotons. Simply shower the area with antiphotons, and presto! Instant shade. > > Anyways, this isn’t MPSIMS or even IMHO. I just want two questions answered: Are there antiphotons? And what properties do they have? Was I right? Do they provide instant shade? > > And actually, more recently I have wondered if they could harm the retina in some way. It’s possible, since you don’t encounter them too often. Or _ **do** _ you? Are they in fact all around us somehow? > > Thank you in advance for all your kind replies:). And remember, as I pointed out, this is not MPSIMS. I only want the scientific part and question of my post addressed:). > > 🙂 🙂 🙂 Your theory of antiphotons sounds a lot like _The Darkon Theory of Light_ > **[The Darkon Theory of Light](https://www.optica-opn.org/home/articles/on/volume_8/issue_2/features/the_darkon_theory_of_light/)** > > In short, the concept of the photon has been found to be a misleading, if not actually invalid, method of describing electromagnetic phenomena. In place of the photon, considered as a quantized unit of light energy, it has been conclusively... Sorry it’s only a teaser. And, in case it’s not obvious, this is a put-on. Here’s the Real Thing: [http://lindberglce.com/tech/darkons.htm](http://lindberglce.com/tech/darkons.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/6 "2018-07-12T14:40:45Z")
One of my favorite comments ever on this board was from someone who plugged in his desk lamp with the polarity reversed, after which it produced antiphotons. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antiphotons/817766/7 "2018-07-12T14:42:12Z")
I guess iI guess I might as well tell you of my other theory for my poor cat George. I thought of interjecting him will little cylinders of poison, perhaps frozen CO. Then his white cells would attack them, and be destroyed. But this is GQ. So continue the discussion as it presently is;). 🙂