Science Squabbling

Probably not, as new Helium is being made all the time in the long alpha decay chains from heavy elements in rocks. It might become expensive, but that's not the same as running out. It's possible that high temperature superconductors might allow Nitrogen cooling in application currently using Helium, which will have a strongly adverse effect on your position, should you be thinking of investing in Helium futures :-)

Listen here from 21 minutes in: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/material/material_20120531-1800b.mp3

It's being made deep in the earth all the time, but it's only where it gets trapped by impermeable layers that it accumulates into more exploitable quantities, it's taken geological time to build up those quantities, and it's only when it shares those formations with natural gas that it's been economically feasible to collect it.

The current situation is the result of US government decisions. Around WW1 the US decided to accumulate a strategic reserve of helium, then in 1996 they decided to sell it off until they'd covered the cost of accumulating it. That started in 2003 and was about to stop, but they've decided to taper off the sale instead. http://news.sciencemag.org/2013/04/u.s.-house-passes-bill-would-head-massive-helium-shortage

Long term, once we run out of fossil hydrocarbons, we're out of cheap helium too. In the mean time we're probably wasting loads because it comes up with the natural gas, but people only bother to accumulate it in the few places where it's particularly concentrated. The helium market is pretty dysfunctional because it's piggybacked on the oil and gas industry. No idea if fracking can yeild helium.

I'm aware of all of the above, was just making a pedantic point about the difference between absolute scarcity and economic scarcity

Fracking is bound to yield some Helium, but again it's a question of whether it's in high enough concentration to be worth distilling.

Ok, and i was probably reacting more to the annoying echoes of another argument from elsewhere than anything you actually said: the 'don't worry about running out and just trust the market' angle.

Helium is increasingly useful, often not easily substitutable, the world has a finite reserve, which we're draining not in response to economic demand for helium but rather demand for natural gas and mostly just ditching the helium irrecoverably into the atmosphere. Yes the US government has screwed the market, but it would be pretty screwed anyway. The long-term rational thing to do would be harvest helium from natural gas extraction well beyond current economic demand and store it for the coming centuries. Markets just don't work on those time-scales.

Yes we won't completely run out of helium, but running out of cheap helium will still be pretty bad. There'll be lots of cool stuff which just wont be economically possible any more.

The long-term rational thing to do would be harvest helium from natural gas extraction well beyond current economic demand and store it for the coming centuries. Markets just don't work on those time-scales

If there is an economic argument for stockpiling Helium, somebody will do it. Doing stuff now for the sake of the future isn't free, lots of cool stuff won't happen at all if we spend all our money on Helium stockpiling. If you think the He price is going to go through the roof, start buying cylinders of it as heirlooms to hand down to your descendants.

200 bar of research grade He (99.99995%) will set you back around £400 excl. delivery.

Massive purity tax on that, which you don't need to pay if you're stockpiling. Pay the purification later, when it will probably be cheaper in real terms and you won't have tied up your capital for a century either.

Shit I've already ordered them

I used to work in a helium factory, but I resigned.
I refuse to be spoken to in that tone of voice.

If there is an economic argument for stockpiling Helium...

That's the point. I didn't say there was an economic case, only a rational one, but i don't think we're going to agree on whether such a distinction exists, and that discussion could get quite off topic.

Oh and apparently fracking is not a good potential source of helium.

america will bomb then invade helium and keep it all to themselves

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130828-science-chemistry-115-element-ununpentium-periodic-table/

ununpentium
ftw

Can you make frames with it?

You can't even make conjoined atoms of it, much less bulk metal.

Check this out...

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/03/exploding-glass-drop-at-100000-fps/

Yeah, they're fun! Nice and trippy but not so complex you can't understand them.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/01/20-big-questions-in-science

No mention of magnets?

It's questions think they can solve.

That explains why there's no mention of the Graham Norton conjecture.

calling into play the graham norton conjecture i call .......

mornington cresent

the rules of said game aren't up there either

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23932577

Interesting view about addiction from Rat Park
http://io9.com/the-rat-park-experiment-486168637

Contrary to popular belief about drugs and addiction it could be that the environment is a powerful determinant as to whether someone (a rat) will become addicted or not

vague anecdote:

I remember reading of psychologists who considered drug abuse not as addiction, but as an unhealthy relationship with a substance. They argue that addiction is a facile description of drug abuse.

Apparently this is highly controversial, although in the extreme limit it resembles addiction in that users don't control their use, just like someone with OCD cant stop spending hours everyday flicking light switches an exact number of times.

I read that Rat Park article. The studies were questioned and follow-ups didn't happen or something but it certainly raised some interesting questions about the whole brain re-wiring addiction thing.

Yes the brain rewiring thing is interesting. There is a study about the susceptibility to rewiring based on age.People under 20 are more prone to this so constant drug use at that age is more damaging perhaps