Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss plasma, the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid and gas. As over ninety-nine percent of all observable matter in the Universe is plasma, planets like ours, with so little plasma and so much solid, liquid and gas, appear all the more remarkable. On the grand scale, plasma is what the Sun is made from and, when we look into the night sky, almost everything we can see with the naked eye is made of plasma. On the smallest scale, here on Earth, scientists make plasma to etch the microchips on which we rely for so much. Plasma is in the fluorescent light bulbs above our heads and, in laboratories around the world, it is the subject of tests to create, one day, an inexhaustible and clean source of energy from nuclear fusion.
With
Justin Wark Professor of Physics and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Oxford
Kate Lancaster Research Fellow for Innovation and Impact at the York Plasma Institute at the University of York
and
Bill Graham Professor of Physics at Queens University, Belfast
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for news about In Our Time, and |
| 0:04.8 | for recommendations about our archive, please follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time. |
| 0:10.1 | I hope you enjoyed the program. |
| 0:11.7 | Hello, Plasma thought of as the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid and gas. |
| 0:18.6 | When we realize that over 99% of all observable matter in the universe's plasma, it makes |
| 0:23.8 | planets like ours with so little plasma and so much solid, liquid and gas, exceptional |
| 0:28.3 | and all the more remarkable. |
| 0:30.2 | On the grander scale, plasma is what the sun is made from, and when we look into the |
| 0:34.6 | night sky almost everything we can see with the naked eyes made of plasma. |
| 0:38.7 | On the smaller scale here in our scientists make plasma to etch the microchips on which |
| 0:42.5 | we rely for so much. |
| 0:44.4 | Plasma is in the fluorescent lights above our heads, and in laboratories around the world |
| 0:48.1 | it's a subject of tests that might create one day, an inexhaustible and clean source of |
| 0:52.7 | energy in nuclear fusion. |
| 0:54.8 | What we need to discuss plasma are just in walk, Professor of Physics and fellow Trinity |
| 0:59.6 | College at the University of Oxford, Kate Lancaster, Research Fellow for Innovation and |
| 1:04.1 | Impact at the York Plasma Institute at the University of York, and Bill Graham, Professor |
| 1:08.4 | of Physics at Queens University, BELTA, just in walk, how does plasma differ from gas |
| 1:14.2 | at the atomic level? |
| 1:16.4 | In your introduction, well, when you mentioned solids, liquids and gases, and we know that |
| 1:22.0 | to transition through those three is one, a transition where you heat things up, ice |
| 1:27.2 | becomes water, becomes water vapor when we put it in the kettle, and that works for |
... |
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