[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yea, but I think the principle behind the replicator was that it used the relationship between matter and energy (Einstein's famous E=mc^2) to create matter from the enormous energy available from the matter/antimatter reaction vessels onboard.

I believe energy-to-matter conversions have been done in particle accelerators but the amounts of energy required even to create tiny quantities are staggering. One of the physicists/scientists on here could probably speak to this a little better.