A critical examination of the bioplasma hypothesis.
The hypothesis of Zon (Physiol. Chem. and Physics 11, 501-506 (1979); 12, 357-364 (1980] that regions of semiconduction within living organisms may exhibit plasma behaviour is shown to be most unlikely. Although charge carrier concentrations may be acceptable, calculated Debye lengths are shown to be only marginally acceptable and calculated plasma frequencies are not sufficiently high to ensure that charge carrier motions are governed by electrical and magnetic forces rather than hydrodynamic considerations. For the latter reason, conventional semiconductors do not exhibit plasma behaviour except close to absolute zero and if they are free from impurities and lattice disorder. The experimental evidences presented for the existence of biological plasma (bioplasma) from the areas of Kirlian photography, mitogenetic radiation, acupuncture and studies of biological fields, are largely explainable in conventional terms without invoking the existence of biological plasma.
D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D004594:Electrophysiology