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A comment on Helium shortage has ended, at least for now. Parent comment

Re:Helium shortage has ended, at least for now by coronadisaster on Saturday June 06, 2020 @09:18AM (#23438970)
> this is like pumping out an Olympic sized swimming pool to extract 10 litres of the good stuff

Sounds line gold mining... I'm sure they'd do it if needed for scientific purposes... or if they discover some health benefits to heliumtalk

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Re:Helium shortage has ended, at least for now by autodidactic on Saturday June 06, 2020 @12:47PM (#23440457)
Yeah this is completely misleading. How the fuck do you they think they got neon? The only way you can get it is from from the atmosphere. Helium occurs in similar concentrations and maintains the same level overtime due the radioactive decay. Actually it's probably increased due to natural gas extraction. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984GeCoA..48.1759O/abstra...
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Re:Helium shortage has ended, at least for now by gliese1337 on Saturday June 06, 2020 @10:49AM (#23439563)
Note that the price of gold is much higher than the price of helium.

If helium prices rise high enough, then yes, we will extract it from the atmosphere. And scientists will be sad because the they won't be able to afford as much of it anymore.

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Re:Helium shortage has ended, at least for now by coronadisaster on Saturday June 06, 2020 @11:52AM (#23439987)
It might be a lot cheaper to filter one cubic meter of air then it is one cubic meter of dirt... But either way, one day it could happen
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