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Idaho National Laboratory’s Peter Kong is harnessing the power of plasma

Most schoolchildren learn that everything in the universe is a solid, a liquid or a gas. But those lessons miss the fourth and by far most common state of matter: plasma.

Plasma is like a gas, but many of its atoms have been stripped of an electron or two. These positively charged atoms swim about in a crackling-hot sea of negatively charged loose electrons, making plasmas great electrical conductors.

Plasma is mysterious and powerful, the stuff of stars, of lightning. Scientists have harnessed it to make welding torches, fluorescent lights and bright, sharp big-screen TVs, as well as those glass novelty globes full of snaking purple current that make your hair stand on end when you touch them. But plasma can do more, much more, and Idaho National Laboratory’s Peter Kong is giving the world a glimpse of its true potential.

by Mike Wall, Research Communications Fellow

Full Story: https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1269&mode=2&featurestory=DA_524529

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