{"id":7003,"date":"2016-07-01T14:56:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T13:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7003"},"modified":"2016-07-01T14:56:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T13:56:40","slug":"one-thing-learnt-week-helium-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7003","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week- Helium its a gas!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Teddies_in_Space.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7006 size-medium\" title=\"By Cambridge University Spaceflight (University of Cambridge Department of Engineering) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Teddies_in_Space-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Spaceflight (\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Teddies_in_Space-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Teddies_in_Space-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>This site doesn&#8217;t just cover depletion of oil but also occasionally other materials such as helium.\u00a0 There are several things I expect you did not know about helium since neither did I.\u00a0 First its the second most abundant element in the universe behind hydrogen.\u00a0 This means there cannot be a shortage of it right?\u00a0 Wrong.\u00a0 The price has increased\u00a0dramatically in the last 15 years (500%) due to depletion.\u00a0 This is because of the most surprising fact about Helium.\u00a0 Its mined.\u00a0 Yes that&#8217;s right you did read it right -mined.\u00a0 Helium on Earth is the end product of radioactive decay of uranium and thorium.\u00a0 I always assumed it was extracted from the air like other inert gases.\u00a0 It builds up under the ground and gets trapped.\u00a0 If it escapes being very light it disappears into space.<\/p>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the problem?\u00a0 The problem is that has very important scientific uses from launching instruments into near space on high altitude balloons to use in medical scanners such as Nuclear magnetic resonance machines.\u00a0 These use helium as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/mri-magnet-cooling\" target=\"_blank\">coolant<\/a>.\u00a0 Its also used in anaesthetic gases. \u00a0 The supply problem has led to calls for a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/christmas-lectures-vs-helium-balloons\" target=\"_blank\">ban<\/a> on its use in kiddies balloons.<\/p>\n<p>The good news a huge new reserve of helium has been found in West Africa along with some in natural gas in Qatar.\u00a0 This should keep us going for a while and technical <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/article\/mri-magnet-cooling\" target=\"_blank\">innovations<\/a> are meaning we may need less of it.\u00a0 However, we still need to stop using it for children&#8217;s balloons.\u00a0 It is non-renewable.<\/p>\n<p>Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This site doesn&#8217;t just cover depletion of oil but also occasionally other materials such as helium.\u00a0 There are several things I expect you did not know about helium since neither did I.\u00a0 First its the second most abundant element in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=7003\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials","category-one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>One thing we have learnt this week- Helium its a gas! 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