[Vo]:OT: Shrinking helium reserves may threaten more than kids' play

[Harry Veeder]

> Shrinking helium reserves may threaten more than kids' play
>
> Jan. 5, 2008
> Courtesy Washington University in St. Louis
> and World Science staff
>
> Helium, the el­e­ment that lifts things like bal­loons, spir­its
> and voice ranges, is be­ing de­plet­ed so quickly that the world's
> larg­est re­serve of it is ex­pected to run out by 2015,
> sci­en­tists say.
>
> That would de­flate more than the Good­year blimp and par­ty
> fa­vors. Its larg­er im­pact is on sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy,
> ac­cord­ing to Lee So­bot­ka of Wash­ing­ton Un­ivers­ity in St.
> Lou­is.
> "He­li­um's use in sci­ence is ex­tremely broad, but its most
> im­por­tant use is as a coolan­t," said So­bot­ka, a spe­cial&! shy;ist <