LANS

Because of its free electrons, a plasma is a good conductor of electricity, much better than than copper, silver, or gold. Lightning offers one of the most dramatic manifestations of this property. As a thunderstorm develops, negative charges accumulate along the cloud base, causing positive charges to build up on the ground below. The resulting electrical field between the concentrations becomes so strong that it ionizes the air. This creates a conducting path of free electrons and ions-a plasma-through which the lightning discharges... A young engineer and chemist working for General Electric Company gave plasma its name. In 1923 Irving Langmuir, who went on to win the Nobel prize in chemistry, was fascinated with the effect of electrical discharges on gases. He borrowed the term plasma from medicine because it fitted the unstable, almost lifelike behavior of the ionized material with which he experimented... Like flashes of lightning, terrestrial plasmas are by and large..

Also known as: plasma universe