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Dwindling helium supply more than hot air, JU professor tells Florida Times-Union

Jacksonville University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr. Christopher Potratz

Helium is in short supply — so much so that prices for the gas have skyrocketed — despite helium being the second-most abundant element in the universe. Who knew?

Jacksonville University Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr. Christopher Potratz, for one.

Potratz was interviewed in this Jan. 15 Florida Times-Union article about the causes and consequences of the helium shortage. As it turns out, the Federal Helium Reserve is being steadily depleted because federal law requires the helium industry to be privatized by 2015 — a scenario that some Washington, D.C., leaders are attempting to prevent.

The Times-Union notes that helium not only is used in balloons and other inflatables, but in medical scanners, LCD screens, welding, electronics, metals, fiber optics, high-tech computer chips, aerospace and research.

“Congress has taken sort of a mid-term problem and exacerbated it,” Potratz says in the Times-Union article.

What happens if helium runs out?

“There are other gases that are lighter than air. Hydrogen, for example,” Potratz told the Times-Union. “But then you have kind of the Hindenburg problem.”