NCERT Class 9 Science Textbook for Blind and Visually Impaired Students made Screen Readable by Professor T K Bansal.

Now scientists are talking of five states of matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma and Bose-Einstein Condensate.

Plasma:
The state consists of super energetic and super excited particles. These particles are in the form of ionised gases. The fluorescent tube and neon sign bulbs consist of plasma. Inside a neon sign bulb there is neon gas and inside a fluorescent tube there is helium gas or some other gas. The gas gets ionised, that is, gets charged when electrical energy flows through it. This charging up creates a plasma glowing inside the tube or bulb. The plasma glows with a special colour depending on the nature of the gas. The Sun and the stars glow because of the presence of plasma in them. The plasma is created in stars because of very high temperature.

Bose-Einstein Condensate:
In 1920, Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose had done some calculations for a fifth state of matter. Building on his calculations, Albert Einstein predicted a new state of matter - the Bose- Einstein Condensate (BEC). In 2001, Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle and Carl E. Wieman of USA received the Nobel prize in physics for achieving “ Bose-Einstein condensation ”. The BEC is formed by cooling a gas of extremely low density, about one-hundred-thousandth the density of normal air, to super low temperatures. You can log on to www.chem4kids.com to get more information on these fourth and fifth states of matter.