“A dream. It’s perfect”: Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America::For a century, the U.S. Government-owned the largest helium reserve in the country, but the biggest exporters now are in Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. With this new discovery, Minnesota could be joining that list.
Hopefully we stop wasting this limited resource on fucking balloons.
Edit: well this kicked off a fun and respectful conversation. The information I can find from actual scientists says wasting helium on balloons is bad. The balloon lobby says it is just a waste byproduct. The balloon lobby brings nothing of value to the world in terms of plastic or helium use, so I’m going to go with the science opinion on this one.
Hopefully we stop wasting this limited resource on fucking balloons.
I don’t recommend fucking balloons. The squeaks are annoying and the pops hurt.
You need more lube.
I think for balloons we should switch back to hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?
It would make birthday parties more fun
Probably not much. The hydrogen that a party balloon would contain could certainly make a small, exciting explosion, but it probably wouldn’t have enough energy to set anything else on fire.
You willing to risk your house, life, and the lives of your children in that?
Yes. I use flammable gas for cooking and heating in my home everyday, hydrogen science kit toys are available for children to play with, and I have some experience working with actually dangerous high pressure hydrogen and oxygen to boot.
helium just boils off in MRI/NMR machines, this is the major use of helium i think. if you could recycle that in machines that already are out there, that would solve lots of problems. there are newer systems that do not require cryogens or just require liquid nitrogen which is much cheaper and less energy intensive. these things use closed loop refrigeration, but in turn you need to supply them with power
Sounds like superconductor research could end up fixing that problem. Once we have a suitable conductor material, you no longer need to keep it that cool.
not exactly, because if someone finds out that high temperature superconductor works even better at 4K, then it will be running at 4K, making entire thing more compact or allowing for higher fields
And giant blimps.
The helium used for balloons is not the same type of helium used in medical and scientific equipment.
Wdym? The only difference is the helium gas used in more serious applications is more pure. Its helium all the same.
Look up Helium-3 vs Helium-4, it most certainly is not “all the same”.
Helium-3 is not used in general applications, its uses are far more niche, it is much more rare than helium 4. For most applications, when we talk about helium being used we mean plain old helium-4. MRI machines and balloons both use helium-4.
Thomas Abraham-James, CEO of Pulsar Helium
Oh my god, fuck this. Have we learned nothing? Nationalize that supply right now.
What should we have learned? I’m out of the loop.
That letting capitalists gatekeep access to essential resources is a terrible idea.
Ah ok. I thought there was something specific about this man or company being evil, like that Massey energy guy is to coal mining.
Don’t waste your limited resources on party balloons
Somewhere in that mine we’re gonna have a bunch of iron miners getting squeaky voices and start sounding like the seven dwarfs.
If there’s so much helium inside the earth, then why doesn’t the earth float away?
So that’s why it doesn’t just fall into the Sun!
I was hoping for a recording of the news release about this discovery in that helium-elevated voice.
I’m }picturing dudes coming up from underground looking just a little bit dirty pretending to wipe off all the helium they’ve been mining while huge dump trucks and conveyor belts industriously rumble away carrying literally nothing nowhere. A concerned supervisor runs over to one of the miners like "god damn it Joel,. I told you to be careful. You’re covered in helium! We’re you even wearing your protective gloves? Look at your hands
. The men g)are angrily as a dumpy Rick carying a load of helium }pulls around just as one of the execs from head office pulls up in a golf cart, leisurely motions to the dump truck driver to stop, and cautiously climbs up into the bed of the truck to reach in. He climbs down, looking bemused, running his thumb and index finger together.
" Fine helium boys, great work out there today" he says after gingerly tasting nothing on his finger.
" But see, we’ve got a little problem".
The men, grizzled helium miners all, look concerned but defiant. These rugged hardworking may ultimately be under this man’s purview, but they’ll never respect soft hands with manicured nails that have never felt thing ring of the pickaxe against a brand new helium de}osit deep in mother earth.
The men’s defiance seems ready to boil over in rage as security personal, a dozen of them, from lines around the mean, prepared for any trouble that might arise.
You see", the executive drawls smugly " recent shipments have been a little… Light".
The men look around nervously, as if a{using looking at Joel on purpose. This is a trepidation the executive does not share as,. Motioning to security guards he walks towards Joel.
" Say, ajoel, is it? How were the men’s today. "
Joe smiles wanly, says nothing.
" Well, Joel? What’s it like down there, huh?
Joel \inces as he replies " it was good" his voice is as high pitched as the backing of a 90s techno song. Joel is grabbed by security guards as the executive roughly reaches into Joel’s c{versllys.
He holds an empty hand up as if holding something, displaying it before the miners.
" Aha! Pure helium. Our helium. And don’t you forget it boys. "
Then men glare angrily at the executive, sympathetically at Joe, as they head off towards the showers to cleanse themselves of helium residue before heading home
Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go…
This is actually incredibly good news
Not really, because we’re still pissing away invaluable helium because of capitalism…
If we keep doing that, it doesn’t really matter how much we find.
We need to stop wasting it first, then finding huge supplies is a good thing. As long as we’re not dumb enough to start wasting it again.
Ah yes, we’re wasting helium, so finding more isn’t a good thing. Of course. 🙄
Yeah it’ll hopefully see us through to when we’re collecting it in space - there’s plenty up there and they’ve already come up with some good ways of collecting it
Imagine we found out climate change predictions were a decade early, so we kept pace and didn’t use the extra time to try and fix it…
It’s not bad news that we got another decade, but it doesn’t matter that much in the long run if we still don’t fix the underlying issue
I don’t disagree with your general point. But finding a new source of Helium, regardless of the rate of use, is a good thing.
That aside – are you saying Helium is related to climate change? Curious to know how, if so.
Edit : minor addition. I was reading a comment the other day and found out helium can also result from other reactions outside of a star, such as the decay of a radioactive element, which ejects an alpha particle (which is just a helium molecule with special attributes, aka no electrons). The alpha particle crashes into something, picks up electrons and suddenly its a helium.
No, they are clearly making the following comparison.
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For climate change : World is heating up, heading toward the result of mass extinctions. The most valuable resource is the time to act. Ten extra years to work on the root cause. Unsustainable emissions.
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For Helium : A finite resource is being exhausted, heading toward a world with no helium (helium is typically created by one of the fusion cycles in the core of a star, fusion is a nascient technology on earth). The most valuable resource is time to act, +X% helium extra supply to address the root cause, unsustainable consumption.
In both cases, the root cause is being (mostly) ignored.
So they’re pointing out that if you have 800 finite helium, then suddenly you find out you have 880 helium… that hasn’t changed the finite nature of the helium. The root cause remains a “spending problem”. And they are likely annoyed that 880 ~> 880 results in, " Omg yay!" vs what should be, “Oh thank goodness, more time to address the root cause of consumption.”
Idk, was that not obvious? I’m not being facetious here, I’m really asking. Brings to mind the “curse of knowledge” fallacy where when you understand something you assume others do, and they often don’t, resulting in disjointed communication where the listener can’t grasp the idea. As condescending as this sounds I assure you its only because I’m not a writer, I’m legitimately making an attempt to communicate neutrally with you as we both seem to have genuine interest.
Anyway, corrections and such always welcome. All numbers in this post made up for illustrative purposes only.
I sincerely appreciate your effort to relate your perspective. I think I did originally interpret the comment how you described, but I over thought it and wondered if there was a connection I was unaware of.
Ah! Makes sense to me.
There is always a chance I misinterpreted as well, I def have whooshed on many jokes on Lemmy. Can’t win them all lol.
That argument makes sense, it’s hard to view finding new helium deposits as good news if we keep wasting helium. As far as I can tell though, helium is already becoming much more expensive which may lead to less waste. It will become more scarce and expensive before the technology gets better at capturing it and storing it. https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/25/1088930/global-helium-market-semiconductors/
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How are we wasting it? Keep in mind that the helium used for stuff like balloons is not the same as the helium used in medical equipment. Also keep in mind that even if it were, the amount of helium used in balloons would be less than 1% of total usage.
So I ask again, how are we wasting it?
Tldr:
It takes an insanely large timescale for it to be produced on Earth, and it rarely accumulates because it’s fucking helium. It’s so light that it will literally just float out into outer space as soon as it’s vented to the atmosphere.
Using any for nonessential purposes is a waste.
And can you give an example of nonessential purposes we’re wasting it on?
Per the article, helium escapes Earth naturally; we’re harnessing the only element on Earth that doesn’t stick around anyway.
How do you find helium? Did everyone suddenly start talking like chipmonks?
[off topic]
“The Guns Above” by Robyn Bennis. What if Napoleonic armies had an unlimited supply of helium? The author does a great job of describing 1800’s airships and their tactics.
Fun book.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
MINNEAPOLIS — Scientists and researchers are celebrating what they call a “dream” discovery after an exploratory drill confirmed a high concentration of helium buried deep in Minnesota’s Iron Range.
Prior to arriving in Minnesota, Abraham-James was working in Tanzania, where another helium discovery was made, but at half the concentration as found in the Iron Range.
The inert gas is likely known by most consumers for filling balloons and blimps, but it’s actually one of the most sought-after commodities in the world because of its versatility; as a liquid, helium is among the most effective and safest coolants around.
Dr. Grant Larson, a radiologist at Hennepin Healthcare, said the health system’s four MRI machines rely on helium to operate.
“We’re aware that it could potentially render us vulnerable to not being able to provide access to our patients,” Dr. Larson told CBS News Minnesota.
“It’s not just about drilling one hole, but now proving up the geological models, being able to get some really good data that wasn’t captured in the original discovery,” he explained.
The original article contains 438 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 60%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
