By LARRY RICE
KIRO Radio

Helium makes you sound funny when inhaled, but there's nothing funny about the idea that Earth may be running out of what is the second most common element in the universe.

Cornell physicist Robert Richardson, who won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for his work with super-fluid helium, is sounding the alarm. Unlike hydrogen, which can easily be broken down from water molecules, no one can make more helium.

"It's a rare gas. The only way helium can be made is alpha decay of rocks over millions of years, or the fusion in the Sun", says Richardson. He reminds us that, "helium has no 'chemistry.' It is a mere placeholder between hydrogen and lithium on the periodic table."

The lack of 'chemistry' is why helium is more than just the simple element to make party balloons and blimps float. Helium, the second lightest element, also has the highest thermal conductivity of any gas and is transparent to neutrons. That gives it a key role in next-generation nuclear reactor technology. It's also used as a safety measure to purge tanks on space rockets prior to fueling.

Helium also has the lowest boiling point of any gas, which makes it useful for a variety of cooling applications, including superconductors and even common medical scanners like an MRI, which uses liquid helium to cool the magnets.

Richardson says an MRI could, one day, simply become "too expensive to operate."

He's recommending we recycle and reuse helium because "the world supply of helium could be used up within 30 years".