In The Future, This Will Cost $100
The world is running short on several metals, but perhaps more disconcerting is the impending loss of the noble helium. The stuff of birthday balloons, superconducting magnets and Mickey Mouse voices could get a lot more expensive in the near future, according to a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. New Scientist has an interview today with Cornell scientist Robert Richardson, who has worked on the superfluid properties of helium. He believes the world will run out of the gas in short order. The U.S. government has been selling helium disgracefully cheaply, Richardson says; we apparently supply 80 percent of the world's helium, and in 1996, Congress passed an act dictating that we get rid of our stockpile by 2015. He wants the government to get out of the helium business and let the market dictate prices. "Unfortunately, party balloons will be $100 each rather than $3, but we'll have to live with that," he says. Related...