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Nobel prizewinner: we are running out of helium
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Sheril R. Kirshenbaum is a research associate at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy (CIEEP) at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future (with Chris Mooney). Michael E. Webber is associate director of CIEEP
One minute with...
Robert Richardson From cryogenics to MRI machines, helium is irreplaceable. But as a Nobel laureate warns, we are running out of the stuff Most of us think of helium as something to fill balloons with or that makes your voice go funny when you inhale it. Why does it matter that helium supplies are running low? There are some substitutes, but it can’t be replaced for cryogenics, where liquid helium cools superconducting magnets for MRI scanners. There is no other substance which has a lower boiling point than helium. It is also used in the manufacture of fibre optics and liquid crystal displays. The use of helium in cryogenics is selfcontained, in that the helium is recycled. The same could be done in other industries if helium was expensive enough that manufacturers thought recovering it was worthwhile. Surely industry must be paying more and more for helium if it is in short supply. No, the price is dictated by a calendar. The US government established a national helium reserve in 1925, and today a billion cubic metres of the gas are stored in a facility near Amarillo, Texas. In 1996 Congress passed an act requiring that this strategic reserve, which represents half the Earth’s helium stocks, be sold off by 2015. As a result, helium is far too cheap and is not treated as a precious resource. Oil companies such as Exxon have invested heavily in extracting fossil fuels from shale, which may also contain helium. Could this come to our rescue? The so-called Eastern oil shale in Kentucky and Ohio, which is also a source of natural gas, contains only trace amounts of helium, not the relatively large 0.5 to 2 per cent found in natural gas reserves in the American West. The same is true of North Sea gas and wells in Europe. Say we do run out of helium – can’t we just make the stuff from something else or purify it from the air? There is no chemical means to make helium. The supplies we have on Earth come from radioactive alpha decay in rocks. Right now it’s
Profile Robert Richardson won a Nobel prize in 1996 for his work on superfluidity in helium. He is the Floyd R. Newman Professor of Physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
not commercially viable to recover helium from the air, so we have to rely on extracting it from rocks. But if we do run out altogether, we will have to recover helium from the air and it will cost 10,000 times what it does today. The shortage of helium has been talked about for a while. Are things really getting that urgent now? Maybe in Europe there has been a conversation, but not in the US – and the US supplies nearly 80 per cent of the helium used in the world. The problem is that these supplies will run out in a mere 25 years, and the US government has a policy of selling helium at a ridiculously low price. What should the US government do instead? Get out of the business and let the free market prevail. The consequence will be a rise in prices. Unfortunately, party balloons will be $100 each rather than $3 but we’ll have to live with that. We will have to live with those prices eventually anyway. Interview by Clint Witchalls
14 August 2010 | NewScientist | 29
cornell university
discarded because of blemishes. Such measures would not only reduce food waste but also save companies money and demonstrate that they are environmentally conscious, which in turn would enhance their reputation and increase their profits. However, businesses function based on the demands of their customers, so ultimately we need to change people’s actions. This will be tricky. Foremost, the public needs to be better educated about proper storage of foods to keep them edible for longer. Shoppers could be supplied with easy-to-digest, accurate information about the proper shelf life of products, so that they are able to plan meals more carefully and end up with less spoilt food at the end of the week. Another problem is “use by” dates, which are extremely conservative and can encourage consumers to throw away perfectly edible food. Similarly, “sell by” dates are usually meant as guidelines for retailers to ensure they do not keep stock too long, not as guidance to consumers about when the food will spoil. We need to improve the way we label foods. Initiatives targeted at consumers could also have ripple-out effects: not only will educating people about food waste reduce pressure on their wallets, it would also lead to fewer trips to the store, saving on gasoline and reducing carbon emissions. Most important, it would help to promote a culture that places a higher value on food, energy, and the way their complex relationship affects us all. n
Sheril R. Kirshenbaum is a research associate at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy (CIEEP) at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future (with Chris Mooney). Michael E. Webber is associate director of CIEEP
One minute with...
Robert Richardson From cryogenics to MRI machines, helium is irreplaceable. But as a Nobel laureate warns, we are running out of the stuff Most of us think of helium as something to fill balloons with or that makes your voice go funny when you inhale it. Why does it matter that helium supplies are running low? There are some substitutes, but it can’t be replaced for cryogenics, where liquid helium cools superconducting magnets for MRI scanners. There is no other substance which has a lower boiling point than helium. It is also used in the manufacture of fibre optics and liquid crystal displays. The use of helium in cryogenics is selfcontained, in that the helium is recycled. The same could be done in other industries if helium was expensive enough that manufacturers thought recovering it was worthwhile. Surely industry must be paying more and more for helium if it is in short supply. No, the price is dictated by a calendar. The US government established a national helium reserve in 1925, and today a billion cubic metres of the gas are stored in a facility near Amarillo, Texas. In 1996 Congress passed an act requiring that this strategic reserve, which represents half the Earth’s helium stocks, be sold off by 2015. As a result, helium is far too cheap and is not treated as a precious resource. Oil companies such as Exxon have invested heavily in extracting fossil fuels from shale, which may also contain helium. Could this come to our rescue? The so-called Eastern oil shale in Kentucky and Ohio, which is also a source of natural gas, contains only trace amounts of helium, not the relatively large 0.5 to 2 per cent found in natural gas reserves in the American West. The same is true of North Sea gas and wells in Europe. Say we do run out of helium – can’t we just make the stuff from something else or purify it from the air? There is no chemical means to make helium. The supplies we have on Earth come from radioactive alpha decay in rocks. Right now it’s
Profile Robert Richardson won a Nobel prize in 1996 for his work on superfluidity in helium. He is the Floyd R. Newman Professor of Physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
not commercially viable to recover helium from the air, so we have to rely on extracting it from rocks. But if we do run out altogether, we will have to recover helium from the air and it will cost 10,000 times what it does today. The shortage of helium has been talked about for a while. Are things really getting that urgent now? Maybe in Europe there has been a conversation, but not in the US – and the US supplies nearly 80 per cent of the helium used in the world. The problem is that these supplies will run out in a mere 25 years, and the US government has a policy of selling helium at a ridiculously low price. What should the US government do instead? Get out of the business and let the free market prevail. The consequence will be a rise in prices. Unfortunately, party balloons will be $100 each rather than $3 but we’ll have to live with that. We will have to live with those prices eventually anyway. Interview by Clint Witchalls
14 August 2010 | NewScientist | 29
cornell university
discarded because of blemishes. Such measures would not only reduce food waste but also save companies money and demonstrate that they are environmentally conscious, which in turn would enhance their reputation and increase their profits. However, businesses function based on the demands of their customers, so ultimately we need to change people’s actions. This will be tricky. Foremost, the public needs to be better educated about proper storage of foods to keep them edible for longer. Shoppers could be supplied with easy-to-digest, accurate information about the proper shelf life of products, so that they are able to plan meals more carefully and end up with less spoilt food at the end of the week. Another problem is “use by” dates, which are extremely conservative and can encourage consumers to throw away perfectly edible food. Similarly, “sell by” dates are usually meant as guidelines for retailers to ensure they do not keep stock too long, not as guidance to consumers about when the food will spoil. We need to improve the way we label foods. Initiatives targeted at consumers could also have ripple-out effects: not only will educating people about food waste reduce pressure on their wallets, it would also lead to fewer trips to the store, saving on gasoline and reducing carbon emissions. Most important, it would help to promote a culture that places a higher value on food, energy, and the way their complex relationship affects us all. n