By modeling the way that helium travels through the Earth’s crust, the researchers were able to predict where new reservoirs of helium should form. Thanks to new research from the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford, and Durham University, however, we may have found the solution to keeping the helium industry inflated. This is mainly because helium is difficult to mine and store, and only a few countries are involved in the helium industry. Yet despite being one of the most abundant elements in the Universe, our planet is currently experience a global helium shortage. Helium is useful for more than just inflating your birthday balloons - as a matter of fact, it plays a key role in a number of medical, scientific, and industrial processes. Experts say that would raise the price of helium by about 10,000 times. That means we'd probably have to go looking for helium in the atmosphere. Although argon - another inert gas - can be substituted for helium for welding purposes, no other element can do what helium can do in supercold applications. Or it could make all of those things much more expensive. If our supply ran out, it could spell the end of MRI testing, LCD screens and birthday-party balloons. In the meantime, it's believed that the planet's total helium supply is running dry. A new law granting more time to get rid of the stuff was passed shortly before the deadline, but critics say Uncle Sam should sell off its entire cache and leave the helium business to the professionals. Instead, it led to a fire sale of sorts in which the gas remained incredibly cheap, given how rare it is. The move was intended to allow the private market to sort out helium's value as well as when and where it should be used. Then-President Bill Clinton signed a law requiring the government to sell off its helium supply by 2015. Seven decades later, the government decided to get out of the helium business. The idea was to stockpile helium for use in blimps as part of the war effort. In 1925, the feds established a national helium reserve in Amarillo, Texas. policy decisions, according to observers. The world only has so much of the gas, and our planet's supply appears to be running low. The trouble is that helium is a finite element. Helium also regularly finds its way into other technology, such as LCD screens and other fiber optics, quantum computers and rocket fuel tanks. It comes in handy in reducing temperatures for superconducting magnets like those used in MRI medical testing devices. This makes is a great cooling source, one that's often used in cryogenic research. Helium has the lowest boiling point of any element and is the only one that can't be solidified by lowering the temperature. What makes the stuff so special? For one thing, it stays cold. deposits account for more than 80 percent of the planet's helium supply. It's found largely in natural gas deposits, including those in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as in Russia and India. The naturally occurring gas makes up only about 0.0005 percent of the planet's atmosphere. Helium is so rare on Earth that a French researcher first discovered its existence by studying the sun. That's created a debate about whether it should be wasted on party balloons and ratcheted up fears about what will happen if we run out. Although it's one of the most common elements in the universe, helium is relatively scarce here on planet Earth. This gas is also used in a wide variety of settings, from medical research technology and nuclear reactors to the blimps that fly over football stadiums on Sunday afternoons in the fall. Helium isn't just the stuff they put in balloons that makes your voice sound funny when you inhale it.
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