Antimatter has long been present in science fiction, sometimes as a destructive substance and sometimes as a constituent of strange beings from distant worlds. It has been the subject of fantasies such as that in which the antimatter manufactured at CERN is stolen from the basement of the laboratory by a secret sect that tries to destroy the Vatican by blowing up the device.

However, beyond the overflowing imagination, the reality is that antimatter is already used in hospitals when doctors want a functional image of the brain. Antimatter is almost identical to matter in its general properties, but it has opposite quantum numbers, so its annihilation produces a flash of light. When a particle meets its antiparticle, both disintegrate, converting all their mass into light energy. When we say that antimatter is “almost identical” to matter, we are saying a lot and the reader will discover here why. The adverb “almost” indicates that it was close, but regardless of the subtleties behind the small deviation from the symmetry between matter and antimatter, that slight deviation could be the cause of our presence in a world made of matter. So the constant play between the big and the small, the robust and the fragile, the soft and the rough that occurs in nature, hides the corpulent consequence, gigantic and fortunate, that comes to make us possible with the repetition that amplifies that which was minuscule. Thus, what is tenuous, light and delicate becomes everything and the silent deviation is kept inside things.

This is a book dedicated to the opponent of everything that constitutes us. It is a praise of that which annihilates us. It is dedicated to the enigmatic substance that appeared before our eyes a short time ago and that continues to raise disturbing questions.