Plasma

A team of scientists led by University of Virginia professor Patrick Hopkins is developing a plasma "freeze ray" that will be less interesting to super villains than to engineers looking for ways to cool electronics in the vacuum of space.

Solar wind – charged particles from the Sun – pervades our solar system, but the exact mechanism behind it remains murky. Now ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has observed previously unknown tiny flares on the Sun’s surface spewing plasma into space.

A world-first clinical trial has found blood or plasma donations can reduce levels of toxic PFAS chemicals by up to 30 percent. The trial is the first to find an effective intervention that reduces blood levels of substances known as “forever chemicals”.

Scientists have discovered a new form of space weather – superfast electron rains that precipitate into the atmosphere from the radiation belts. The rains could affect satellites, spacecraft and astronauts, but aren’t accounted for in current models.

The results of a major trial testing convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 in high-risk outpatients have been peer-reviewed and published. The once-promising therapy was found to be ineffective in preventing disease progression in high-risk patients.

Bacterial infections of the middle ear are quite common, particularly in children, yet they can be difficult to treat. An experimental new device has been designed to help, by zapping the bacteria with plasma.

More than 40 years after launch, Voyager 1 is still making new discoveries. The latest achievement by the craft is the detection of a faint, plasma “hum,” indicating that there may be more activity in interstellar gas than previously thought.

A clinical trial run by the NIH exploring the efficacy of convalescent plasma in treating mild to moderate COVID-19 patients has been halted. In a similar conclusion to prior trials, the once-promising treatment was deemed unlikely to be of any benefit.

Scientists have found evidence of a “space hurricane” for the first time. The storm, made up of swirling clouds of plasma, raged in Earth’s upper atmosphere for hours, dumping huge amounts of electrons like rain in a system that resembles a regular hurricane.

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the way we study this plasma, managing to trap an ultracold form of it in a magnetic "bottle" for the first time, an achievement that could act as a springboard for research into nuclear fusion energy.

A crewed mission to Mars may be more practical thanks to a new rocket concept developed by Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), that uses magnetic fields to generate thrust.

Like weeds that grow back if you don’t remove the roots, cancer can keep returning thanks to stem cells. A new “designer” DNA molecule eradicates these cancer stem cells, with tests in mice showing promising early results in preventing relapse.