Every once in a while, I like to keep my humility properly tuned by watching an AI‑generated version of a Richard Feynman physics lecture on YouTube. Nothing reminds me faster that I once flunked Physics and Calculus at Queens College in 1966 — a double‑whammy that cost me my draft deferment and launched my inglorious but memorable career in the U.S. Navy.
Sixty years later, I still couldn’t pass a freshman physics exam, but I enjoy the lectures anyway.
I don’t always understand everything, but I always learn something. Usually, it’s a simple idea Feynman tosses out in the first few minutes. But the other night, I surprised myself by following a good chunk of the lecture. It helped that the topic was helium — the second‑simplest element in the universe, right behind hydrogen.
Unlike hydrogen, which happily combines with other elements (like oxygen to make water), helium is a noble gas. It doesn’t bond with anything. It’s nature’s loner. And because it’s lighter than air, a helium balloon will rise until the balloon pops. The rubber falls back to Earth, but the helium keeps going — right out of the atmosphere and into space. Gravity can’t hold it.
So you buy another balloon. They’re cheap. Helium is cheap. You can get it at any party store.
For now.
But eventually — in a century or two — most of Earth’s helium will be gone, drifting off into space. That means no more birthday balloons, which is sad enough. But the real trouble is that helium is essential for things far more important than parties.
MRI machines, for example, rely on liquid helium to keep their superconducting magnets cold enough to work. And they use a lot of it — more than enough to fill every balloon in a party store. Liquid helium stays liquid at temperatures where everything else freezes solid. That’s why it’s irreplaceable.
So why not just make more?
Well, this is where Feynman earned his paycheck. There are only two ways nature makes helium:
- Inside stars, where hydrogen atoms fuse into helium. Unfortunately, we can’t run a star in a warehouse.
- Inside rocks, where uranium slowly decays and emits alpha particles — which are helium nuclei. Over millions of years, those helium atoms get trapped underground. That’s the helium we drill for today.
The problem is that both processes take a very long time, and the supply is limited. Once we let helium escape into the atmosphere, it’s gone forever.
If we don’t get smarter about helium, the party won’t just be over — the lights in the MRI room will go out too.
Peace & Love, and all of the above,
Earl
(2) NENA | 99 Red Balloons [1984] (Official HD Music Video) – YouTube
 NENA | 99 Red Balloons [1984] (Official HD Music Video) |
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