Congress decided to sell it off before demand for helium skyrocketed, thanks to MRIs and semiconductor chipmaking.
High helium prices, driven by shortages, played a role in Party City’s bankruptcy. Here’s what it means for businesses that rely on balloons.
Disruptions at helium processing plants have left a number of industries competing for a limited supply: healthcare, tech and manufacturing to name a few.
After all, air is free.
Originally for the military, it's now critical in medical and research labs.
Helium is a valuable finite resource that is often wasted just for fun.
There have long been warnings that helium supplies are running out, but now we may know why. The answer comes down to dollars and cents.
Helium is an abundant element that's vital to high-tech products. But slack production is causing a shortage, and that has helium prices ballooning.
Nobel laureate and Cornell University physics professor Robert Richardson has a warning about helium. The world is running out of it. And that…