Helium Shortage
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, but is not abundantly found on Earth, and any free helium that gets into the atmosphere is lost to space. The element is only produced here underground, often quite deeply, by the decay of radioactive elements in a process that takes a VERY long time.
While there is still plenty of helium in the earth, it can be very hard to get at. It is generally obtained as a byproduct of natural gas production, and while the US is the largest producer, supplying 40% of world supply. Political shenanigans in the Middle East have supposedly* caused a bit of a short supply of the gas, which is used for a variety of modern purposes.
Balloon businesses**, which used to pay $25 a tank are now paying over $300, and many are shutting down, according to newspapers. But some scientific research is being delayed or halted as well, over lack of supply and higher costs, mostly in physics work with superconductivity. Helium has shown some very unique properties at ultra -low temperatures, and is also used to cool superconductive magnet coils.
Most of the commercially available supply is diverted to this function in MRI scanners, which use coils that require cooling to temperatures below 10 degrees Kelvin. (That's very cold!)
*I say supposedly, because I haven't really dug that hard, I don't like to take media at their word in economic matters. For all I know, maybe certain higher ups what to keep superconductivity research on a tight leash.
**I have never actually written the word businesses before, though I must have read it at least hundreds, if not thousands of times in half a lifetime's worth of reading newspapers, periodicals, books and websites. It seems really wrong to me for some reason!
I blame the clowns
What I don't really understand is that fact that helium which is supposed to be available at at a reasonable price is now been scarce maybe due to some circumstances been caused by we humans .
I didn't know that helium was so hard to produce. I learned something today. That funny that you have such a viceral reaction to the word business. It is kind of a dirty word sometimes
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I remember reading about this some years ago. In the dark ages of my life we owned a flower shop and we offered helium balloons along with flower arrangements and plants. Once I learned how precious the stuff should be we stopped offering it. I just couldn't bring myself to sell something that would be gone forever, and so important to medical science. Fortunately it was not a very big part of our business!