First of all, before I delve into making plasmas with grapes, I just want to start with defining a plasma. A plasma is an ionised gas, so a gas that has been heated up to high temperatures. So high in ...

• Ever see those YouTube videos where a grape explodes in a microwave? Physicist Aaron Slepkov did. • His team set out to figure out the true reason for the plasma fire phenomenon by testing not only ...

The internet is full of videos of thoughtful people setting things on fire. Here’s a perennial favorite: Cleave a grape in half, leaving a little skin connecting the two hemispheres. Blitz it in the ...

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs. If you’ve ever searched for ways to make plasma at home (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t?) ...

There are thousands of YouTube videos in which DIY science enthusiasts cut grapes in half—leaving just a thin bit of skin connecting them—and put the grapes in the microwave, just to marvel at the ...

Video of plasma created by irradiation in a commercial microwave oven of whole (uncut) grapes forming a dimer on a watch glass. Credit: Hamza K. Khattak, Pablo Bianucci, and Aaron D. Slepkov, via PNAS ...

An internet parlour trick involves slicing a grape almost in half and throwing it in a microwave, igniting a plasma to create a fiery show. Plasmas are formed when a gas is heated and ionised, ...

If you haven’t seen what happens to grapes in a microwave oven, you haven’t spent enough time in the richly nerdy corner of the internet that specializes in strange, everyday phenomena with ...

If you’ve ever searched for ways to make plasma at home (and let’s be honest, who hasn’t?) you’ll quickly come across an interesting kitchen experiment that involves one or more grapes. By placing two ...