From University of California - Los Angeles UCLA receives $4.8
million grant to support research in world’s best plasma physics
facility In experiments that last a hundred-millionth of a
second or just slightly longer, physicists are learning the
secrets of plasma — the turbulent, hot, ionized, gas-like matter
that may help us destroy toxic waste and chemical and biological
weapons, and perhaps help generate unlimited energy through
fusion. UCLA’s Basic Plasma Science Facility has been awarded a
$4.8 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy and the
National Science Foundation to become the country’s first
national research facility for scientists worldwide to study the
mysterious properties of plasma. Plasma is believed to make up
more than 99 percent of the visible universe, including the sun,
the stars, galaxies and the vast majority of the solar system.
Plasma is a fourth state of matter, distinct from solids,
liquids and gases, in which electrons have been stripped away to
leave positively charged a