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Plasma   /plˈæzmə/   Listen
noun
Plasma  n.  
1.
(Min.) A variety of quartz, of a color between grass green and leek green, which is found associated with common chalcedony. It was much esteemed by the ancients for making engraved ornaments.
2.
(Biol.) The viscous material of an animal or vegetable cell, out of which the various tissues are formed by a process of differentiation; protoplasm.
3.
Unorganized material; elementary matter.
4.
(Med.) A mixture of starch and glycerin, used as a substitute for ointments.
5.
Same as blood plasma.
6.
(physics) A state of matter in which charged particles such as electrons and atomi nuclei have sufficiently high energy to move freely, rather than be bound in atoms as in ordinary matter; it has some of the properties of a gas, but is a conductor of electricity. Note: In a typical plasma, the number of positive and negative particles are approximately equal. Plasmas are found naturally in the atmosphere of stars, and can be created in special laboratory apparatus.
Blood plasma (Physiol.), the colorless fluid of the blood, in which the red and white blood corpuscles are suspended. It may be obtained by centrifuation of blood to remove the blood cells. It is distinguished from serum in that plasma still has the fibrin of blood, and may be clotted, while in serum the fibrin has been removed.
Muscle plasma (Physiol.), the fundamental part of muscle fibers, a thick, viscid, albuminous fluid contained within the sarcolemma, which on the death of the muscle coagulates to a semisolid mass.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Plasma" Quotes from Famous Books



... not go far enough to pursue the conversation. He knew that their power was something like a solar battery. When in gear, the current that went through the "frame" of the hour-glass-shaped craft turned it into a huge blob of plasma, a miniature nebula, and hurled it into space. As for the Fourth Drive, he hadn't the slightest idea how it worked. Ato had said that the scientists who developed it were not sure—just as men had developed generators long before they knew ...
— Hunters Out of Space • Joseph Everidge Kelleam
... spacing apparently random. The main sequence of noise out of which the peaks rise is the 21-centimeter hydrogen line. Notice also that the peaks have nearly identical amplitudes. Obviously, the source is neutral hydrogen, which is to say hydrogen in its normal form, not ionized as we find it in plasma in a star's atmosphere. Our problem is simply to locate the source of the peaks. Somewhere in the circuit there seems to be an effect that serves to modulate the incoming signal. Our antenna will be useless unless we eliminate this interference so ...
— The Egyptian Cat Mystery • Harold Leland Goodwin
... itself. From the fact that the son of a fencing-master has become a good fencer much more quickly than his father, we cannot infer that the habit of the parent has been transmitted to the child; for certain natural dispositions in course of growth may have passed from the plasma engendering the father to the plasma engendering the son, may have grown on the way by the effect of the primitive impetus, and thus assured to the son a greater suppleness than the father had, without troubling, so to speak, about what the father did. So of many examples ...
— Creative Evolution • Henri Bergson
... to contain the relics of many Saints, which that Pontiff presented to that church in memory of himself. It would not be possible to find anything more varied than the curves of those vases, some of which are of sardonyx, agate, amethyst, and lapis-lazuli, and some of plasma, heliotrope, jasper, crystal, and cornelian, so that in point of value or beauty nothing more could be desired. For Pope Paul III he made a cross and two candelabra, likewise of crystal, engraved with scenes of the Passion of Jesus Christ in various compartments; with a vast number of stones, ...
— Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects - Vol. 06 (of 10) Fra Giocondo to Niccolo Soggi • Giorgio Vasari
... he gargled. To chronicle the heroic emotions that motivate men is a fine task. Love and hate and all the chemistry of their mingling that go to form the plasma of human experience. It is a lesser, even an ignominious one to narrate Lilly's kind of anguish during this matinal performance of her husband. She suffered a tight-throated sort of anguish that could have been no keener had it been of larger provocation. Her toes and her fingers would curl ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst


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