BYE BYE
HELIUM

Most of us know it as the gas that floats party balloons, blimps, and giant superheroes in holiday parades. But helium also purges rocket engines for NASA and the military and is crucial for diving equipment, particle accelerators, and MRIs.
The deflating news, says the National Research Council, is that we’re running out. Most of the world’s helium comes from beneath America’s Great Plains, where it’s trapped in natural gas. The U.S. began stockpiling it in the 1960s, but in 1996 opted to recoup its investment and sell off the reserve by 2015. After that, other producers – including Russia, Algeria, and Qatar – will control what’s left of the global market: perhaps a mere 40 years’ worth.
Scientists, including Nobel Prize - winning physicist Robert Richardson, think increasing the price would help conserve the element. Richardson knows that charging big bucks ($100) for a little balloon is a partypooping idea. But it would also encourage the major helium users, like NASA, to recycle – and help the world hold on to its up, up, and away.