On 21 August, 2026, my collection of stories on plasma mediated applications appeared as a Kindle book on the Amazon site. This was my first book published on Kindle. Check out the site: https://www.amazon.in/s?k=stories+from+the+fourth+state&crid=3VN11GFKAXA22&sprefix=stories+from+the+fourth+state%2Caps%2C310&ref=nb_sb_ss_mvt-t11-ranker_1_29 I started writing on Medium in 2021. For years, I chronicled my journey from being a curious student to a seasoned plasma scientist. I wrote about the...

Dr. Sastri, head of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, sat watching the grainy CNN footage on his television, his forehead creased with concern. The European headlines were absolutely devastating. Medical waste by the thousands of tons — bloodied bandages, contaminated needles, and discarded organs — was being smuggled across borders like some kind of toxic black market currency. The health crisis had grown so severe that France’s health minister was forced to step down. This...

The laboratory hummed; the steady, rhythmic heartbeat of a small, modular plasma reactor sitting on a scarred wooden workbench in the open shed beside the laboratory. It is called the coil whine, the low hum made by current switching through transformers and coils, causing them to vibrate slightly. The plasma reactor was a simple one with an impressive name: Dielectric Barrier Discharge or DBD for short. Air pushed through the space between the dielectric shielded electrodes gets ionized and...