In science, or more accurately in science fiction, the phrase total conversion refers to the idea of converting 100% of mass into energy. The first reference to such a process may have occurred in the classic Robert A. Heinlein short story Universe, which certainly was the first to describe a large, slow multi-generational starship. Its power source was called "the Converter". For mathematical sciences, see mathematics. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Heinlein autographing at the 1976 Worldcon Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most influential and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ...

It should be noted that the concept of combining ordinary matter with antimatter, which indeed can convert 100% of mass into energy and was popularized by the 1960s television series Star Trek, is usually called "annihilation". The Universe is not known to possess large natural supplies of antimatter, and current theoretical thinking is that it actually doesn't. Antimatter can be manufactured, but doing so requires using at least as much energy as would later be released during annihilation. Nevertheless, manufactured antimatter is expected to someday be useful as a form of extremely concentrated stored energy, for special purposes such as powering spaceships. Antimatter is matter that is composed of the antiparticles of those that constitute normal matter. ... This article or section is missing needed references or citation of sources. ... The first season DVD box set of the original Star Trek television series from 1966. ... A spacecraft is designed to leave Earths atmosphere and operate beyond the surface of the Earth in outer space. ...

Modern developments in Physics have yielded the possibility that there may be a way to actually convert 100% of ordinary matter into energy. The physicist Stephen Hawking showed that a black hole can interact with virtual particles in the vacuum in such a way that the black hole can "evaporate". This is known as Hawking radiation. For most black holes (possessing stellar mass) the evaporation process takes place extremely slowly, but the smaller it gets, the faster it evaporates (provided nothing falls into the black hole while all this is going on). The actual "evaporant" is a flow of subatomic particles from the hole, travelling at nearly the speed of light. Due to the nature of virtual particles, the escaping particles should be roughly a 50/50 mix of ordinary particles and antimatter particles. The implication is that if we started with an appropriately small black hole, which was suffering from a fierce rate of escaping particles, we could deliberately inject ordinary matter into the hole to compensate for the mass it loses that way. Then we gather up the escaping particles and allow them to annihilate each other. The net effect is the total conversion of the ordinary matter which is fed to the black hole, into the pure energy of the annihilated escaped particles. However, depending on what total percentage of the escaping particles are neutrinos, this particular total conversion process may be problematic. We know of no way to "gather up" neutrinos and make them annihilate with anti-neutrinos. So, this may turn out to be less useful than the "accretion disc" phenomenon, even though accretion can convert no more than 40% of mass into energy. (By comparison, the nuclear fusion of hydrogen that powers the stars only converts about 1%.) Physics (from the Greek, φυσικός (physikos), natural, and φύσις (physis), nature) is the science of the natural world, which deals with the fundamental constituents of the universe, the forces they exert on one another, and the results of these forces. ... Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, is considered one of the worlds leading theoretical physicists. ... A black hole is a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything past its event horizon from escaping it except through quantum tunnelling behaviour (known as Hawking Radiation). ... In the description of the interaction between elementary particles in quantum field theory, a virtual particle is a temporary elementary particle, used to describe an intermediate stage in the interaction. ... In physics, Hawking radiation is thermal radiation thought to be emitted by black holes due to quantum effects. ... A subatomic particle is a particle smaller than an atom: it may be elementary or composite. ... Cherenkov effect in a swimming pool nuclear reactor. ... The neutrino is an elementary particle. ... Artists conception of a binary star system with one black hole and one main sequence star An accretion disc (or accretion disk) is a structure formed by material falling into a gravitational source. ... The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reaction is considered the most promising for producing fusion power. ...

In the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, total conversion via "annie plants" is the standard means of generating power for everything from the largest warships to personal sidearms. Annie plants operate using some form of technological gravity manipulation to crush ordinary matter into neutronium, which decays when released from the artificial gravity field. Webcomics, also known as online comics and web comics, are comics that are available on the Internet. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Schlock Mercenary Schlock Mercenary is a webcomic by Howard Tayler. ... Neutronium is a term used in science fiction and popular literature to refer to an extremely dense phase of matter composed primarily of neutrons. ...