80 Years of Plasma

Abstract

Irving Langmuir proposed the term 'plasma' in a paper in 1928 (Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 14 627–637) to describe a 'region containing balanced charges of ions and electrons'. There does not appear to be any record of the thinking behind this proposal, so it is difficult to be definitive. One idea is that since the Greek word 'plasma' was used to describe a mouldable fluid, 'neon' lighting, with its almost limitless ability to provide colourful shapes, provided the inspiration. Another relates to the prior medical use in relation to blood with its variety of different 'corpuscles' and that the essential description of the positive column required one to recognize at least the role of the separate species of electrons, ions and gas atoms. Tonks, when questioned thirty years later, was inclined to the latter idea, but it is unlikely that we shall ever know for certain. (See postscript added December 2008.)