That article reads a lot like "Peak Oil" concerns. There is a lot of Helium available - [1] The global reserves of helium are known to be approximately 41 billion cubic meters. Most of them lie in Qatar, Algeria, the USA and Russia. Annual global production of helium is about 175 million cubic meters, and the USA remains the largest producer. "
Regardless, this is something the market can correct for very, very easily. As helium supply becomes more scarce, the price will go up, resulting in greater supply. Most of it comes from natural gas, and is so cheap [2] it's not worth capturing. Oil trades for around $100/barrel. Helium trades at $100 for a thousand cubic feet (albeit in gas form)
Some of the problems with Helium is that Physics experiments use a LOT, and previously was so cheap that it wasn't worth trying to conserve. That's changing - [3] A recycling system can recapture about $12,000/year of lost helium for a single scientist.
From reading articles - apparently the problems isn't so much that the cost of helium is increasing - but that it's been so cheap because of the US Natural Reserves making it completely non-competitive to capture - they are basically giving the stuff away for next to nothing.
And, putting it in a $100+ Hard Drive that will last a half decade is a FAR better use than putting 10x that much in a $0.50/balloon that will last 30 minutes. (Or Macy's parade which uses 400,000 cubic feet of helium) In fact, it may turn out to be the best conceivable use of Helium in terms of a value per m^3 equation.
Thanks for that post - helium scarcity is a load of FUD IMO, since if it becomes scarce and thus more expensive, companies will jump into the market and start producing it. Similar to the production of hydrogen for the car market. Rare earth materials are a much bigger issue, since those are much harder to chemically manufacture and aren't a by-product of anything (except recycling)
Even the rare earths (which, ironically, are relatively plentiful in the earth's crust [1], enjoy the same market-response behavior. As soon as China tried to flex a bit of muscle in it's monopoly position, a bunch of other suppliers jumped into the market (and, industrial users of rare-earths found alternative resources for their gadgets)
How? Through transmutation? I can't see that being economically viable.
Helium is a noble gas (generally does not combine into molecules) and tends to leave Earth's atmosphere when released. There's no viable way to produce more of it.
Note, don't let the "synthetic" part fool you into thinking they're not real diamonds. They are real in every imaginable way except they're not "a girl's best friend".
Diamonds are made out of carbon, which is incredibly abundant on earth. There's no comparable way to manufacture helium out of anything that doesn't already contain helium; you need nuclear reactions, which are much more difficult to do at large scale.
Helium is made up of electrons, which is also incredibly abundant on earth. Either way, sarcasm aside, I guess you didn't really understand what I was trying to say if you're taking my diamond comparison as perfectly analogous, and then shooting down the idea because it doesn't extrapolate the same way you expect it to.
Up until some point, it was also difficult to manufacture synthetic diamonds at large scale. When the price of the thing desired is right / high enough, technology will be found and whatever costs necessary will become feasible.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/10/17/scien...