In most fuel cells hydrogen is fed to the anode, where it is ionised into a proton and an electron.

ECONOMIST: The dawn of micropower

To achieve their goal, they need to learn how to control ionised gases similar to those thought to compose the Snake.

ECONOMIST: Here be serpents

Dr Ardavan's theory describes how the gyrating star generates an intense magnetic field, which polarises the ionised gas or plasma surrounding it.

ECONOMIST: Physics

Stars form most easily from molecular hydrogen, but for the first few million years, most hydrogen would have been ionised into protons and electrons.

ECONOMIST: Research from the beginning of time

Gas clouds in the middle of the galaxy are, everyone agrees, partly ionised: radiation flying through has battered electrons off some of the atoms in the gas.

ECONOMIST: Here be serpents

Every Aston-Martin body is sanded using hand-held orbital sanders with a 400-grade sanding disc, dampened with a fine mist of de-ionised water, and sanded again with 1000-grade discs.

FORBES: A Private Tour Of Aston-Martin's Factory

For instance, the ultra-thin layers of graphene (a two-dimensional form of graphite) are formed by injecting liquid solutions containing carbon and silicon into an extremely hot, ionised gas (plasma) of argon.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

According to Andy Mazzara, the director of the Institute for Non-Lethal Defence Technologies at Pennsylvania State University, prototypes of such devices use a laser to create an ionised channel of air through which an electromagnetic pulse is directed.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

Don Melrose, also at Sydney, points out that the gas in the middle of the galaxy might already be so strongly ionised, and thus such a good electrical conductor, that current would leak away rather than build up into a concentration like the Snake.

ECONOMIST: Here be serpents