We’re going to create the fourth state of matter in your microwave using food. Note – this is NOT the kind of plasma doctors talk about that’s associated with blood. Plasma is what happens when you add enough energy (often in the form of raising the temperature) to a gas so that the electrons break free and start zinging around on their own.

Grapes are made mostly with juice that conducts electricity (think of how salt water conducts electricity). The grape halves are like little cups full of this conductive juice connected by a tiny bridge (the part that you didn’t cut all the way through). When you hit the ON button on the microwave, the energy being shot at your grape moves the electrolytes across the bridge very quickly, which heats up the bridge until it bursts into flame.