You have heard the term "nuking" used to describe rapid heating in a microwave oven.
Amazingly, here is a low tech way to make a stable plasma, using a common candle as the starter for the flame which becomes a plasma ball. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7RFyh5ABcQ No vacuum, nor magnetic confinement, nor even a Farnsworth Fusor is required. In this case, the experiment ran a little too long - and the Pyrex bowl was sacrificed (for science) Yet . and here is an odd implication: did you realize that deuterated wax is available ? For a few naive parents of precocious students, realize that your average teenage science nerd may have already ordered some of this wax. Talk about the scary possibility of "fusion in a budget" ! Not sure I care to imagine all of the further possibilities .. Jones
