"Professor Philip Evans and PhD student Kenny Cheng were experimenting with high-energy plasma to make wood more water-repellent. However, when they applied the technique to the cut ends of wood cells, the surfaces turned extremely black." -> Yes, usually when you burn wood, you get charcoal. Also surface burning of wood is a popular method of wood treatment in the construction industry.
This is such a HN comment. Every single time some new tech is posted, someone here will make a comment assuming that the group of professionals working on it for years have overlooked some incredibly obvious take that they in all their wisdom came up with after a 30s skim of an article about it.
