Why are we Still Wasting Helium?

Helium may be greatly abundant throughout the universe but we have a very limited supply here on Earth. Why is this so important? Helium is crucial for medical devices like MRI machines and has no real substitute when it comes to certain industrial, medical and military applications. Once it is gone that is it and yet we still allow airships, blimps, floats and party balloons like it was as abundant as the grass in our yards. One day it will be gone and we'll look back at how wasteful we were.

Unlike hydrogen, helium is a noble gas meaning its inert properties make it stable and ideal for scientific research. While it may be fun to see how it affects our voices, there is no practical way to produce the element in a laboratory environment. Helium is normally produced through the nuclear reactions that occur in stars. When two hydrogen atoms collide at super high speed and pressure, nuclear fusion occurs and we get helium. Although a nuclear fusion reactor can produce the element, it always takes more energy to produce than what we get out of it. Moreover, it is extremely expensive to extract helium from air in the trace amounts that are available as opposed to hydrogen which can be stripped from H²O.

On a recent The Big Bang Theory episode, Leonard and Sheldon mirror the reality of the situation as they cannot prove their theory with a liquid helium shortage. When liquefied, helium produces the coolest temperature of any element (-452.2 degrees Fahrenheit) making it ideal for scientific and medical applications. Every time I see a blimp now or my neighbor buying helium filled balloons, I truly cringe. In a world where anything can be bought for the right price, I guess this should not surprise me. Nevertheless, the days of the Goodyear Blimp may very well soon come to an end.

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