system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[STAR TREK] What is so special about a crystal of 2 lithium atoms?

Dilithium crystals are essential to Warp Core technology. Why?
gpt
Dilithium has the unique property that it is porous to anti-hydrogen. So the antimatter will not actually "touch" the dilithium and cause an uncontrolled annihilation (read explosion) That means the matter and antimatter streams (deuterium from above and anti-deuterium from below) can annihilate in a controlled way inside the warp core (where the dilithium is).  The shape of the dilithium is then used to channel the resulting reaction plasma to the warp coils in the nacelles (down the power transfer conduits).

The dilithium is also used to tune the resulting plasma from the m/am reaction to the best frequency for a given warp factor.