this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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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.
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.