Today, we visited the UCLA Plasma Research Center. It was really crazy and awesome. Before I went to the research center, I didn’t know much about plasma. All I knew about the subject was that it was the fourth matter of state and an ionized gas. 
Although I knew some aspects of plasma, I didn’t know that it isn’t natural to Earth, that it is found in the sun and lightning contains small amounts of plasma. Plasma is created at intensely hot temperatures of 1800° C and can keep increasing temperature past 100 million degrees. The plasma is created in a large vaccum, which sucks out all of the impurities in the machine. The reaction between a particular gas and an electron beam creates a small amount of plasma. Since our machines cannot generate high temperatures, the plasma in the chambers only last a few seconds, but that one-millionth of a seconds creates a sense of hope in every scientist.
Today, we saw two machines, which were gigantic and occupied the entire rooms they resided in. Every seconds there would be a flash of light, the color of a fluorescent orange-red, because of the helium in the chamber. Within these large machines, a person can witness the connection between science and art. The artistic aspect of plasma is its color. With a different gas, the color of the plasma changes. For example, if a scientist uses xenon 
in the chamber, the color of the plasma would be a light violet. This clash of art and science is the true reason why we are here at camp.
http://bogard.110mb.com/Plasmaglobecolors.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)
http://www.physorg.com/news92671947.html
http://www.oulu.fi/~spaceweb/textbook/theories.html
http://www.plasmas.org/what-are-plasmas.htm