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Helium is all fun and games right? High voice, super funny, no worries right? Or is there a serious shortage of helium? This week, Melissa and Jam answer this question. But we can't stop there. This is part one of two episodes about helium.
A podcast that helps you understand the fascinating chemistry hidden in your everyday life.
Have you ever wondered why onions make you cry? Or how soap gets your hands clean? What really is margarine, or why do trees change colors in the fall? Melissa is a chemist, and to answer these questions she started a podcast, called Chemistry for your life!
In each episode Melissa explains the chemistry behind one of life’s mysteries to Jam, who is definitely not a chemist, but she explains it in a way that is easy to understand, and totally fascinating.
If you’re someone who loves learning new things, or who wonders about the way the world works, then give us a listen.
Jam and I are so excited to announce our partnership with MEL Science. They're an at home science kit company, and the last time Jim and I met before the quarantine, we were able to unbox our very own super cool science kit from Melscience. It's legit. As a chemist, I can say it it looks like some of the equipment I use in my own lab. And we actually did take a little video, so there will be some video footage of that on social media that will be really fun for us to share with you guys.
Melissa:And since then, my roommate and I have had a lot of fun with it while stuck at home for our shelter in place order. I really am impressed by the company and by the equipment they sent us. And I was also very impressed to see that they're praised by the Royal Society of Chemistry, which is a pretty big deal.
Jam:To get your own kit and do some cool chemistry experiments at home with your friends, parents, kids, or just by yourself, Go to bit.ly/melchem. That's bit.ly/ MelChem. And with every chemistry kit purchased with that link, MelScience supports our show. You could do your own chemistry experiments and help others around the world Learn about chemistry at the same time. Once again, it's bit.ly/melchem, and the link is also in our show notes.
Melissa:And now on to the show.
Melissa:Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:And I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Well, today, we're recording remotely, so we wanted to warn you guys that if the sound quality is a little different, that's why.
Jam:We kind of lucked out. Melissa actually had some stuff at her house she didn't know about and from her roommates. And then I had our our gear, that we normally use with me. And so we were able to do this, and we'll see how it goes. But just wanna let y'all know to bear with us if there's any Weird strange situations where we'll try to iron those out and make the listening experience as good as possible for you guys.
Jam:But, obviously, we did not expect to have to adapt so quickly to Remote podcasting.
Melissa:Yeah. This is all very, very unexpected, but we're trying to make the most of it. And we're really glad that it worked out that we had this stuff that we need to be able to still teach some chemistry to you guys. Okay. This is kinda fun because I can see, like, my roommate's dog's outside the window, so it's kinda different.
Melissa:Okay. So today's episode is actually 2 episodes. Uh-oh. The 1st part comes out this week, and then I'm gonna have the next part for you next week.
Jam:Awesome.
Melissa:This is also the 1st time Jam's hearing about this too. So not just you listeners, but Jam didn't know I was tricking him into doing 2 episodes at once.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Okay. So, actually, today's topic, Helium, is was from questions from 2 listeners. So 1, listener was Esther r.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And she asked, how does Helium make your voice change? Which is a great question. And then my mom asked she actually texted me one day and asked me if there was a helium shortage because she'd heard commercials for mining helium due to a helium shortage, and she thought it sounded kind of like a scam.
Jam:Oh, weird.
Melissa:Yeah. So she, I think she texted me and asked me that when she heard that on the radio. And those are the 2 questions that we're gonna talk about today. Is there a Helium shortage? And then for next week, how does Helium change your voice?
Melissa:So I decided to do the why if there's a shortage on Helium because I think that question needs to be answered before we make any decisions about changing our voice with Helium. You know what I'm saying?
Jam:Right. Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:Okay. So when they asked me these questions, I knew the basic answers, but I went ahead and looked into it like I always do just to make sure. And while I was getting in and, like, digging into everything, I found out so much more, and it was so exciting. It was so delightful. I found out so many crazy cool things, including 1 fun, direct quote that I was like, oh, Jam is gonna love this.
Melissa:I can't wait to read it to him.
Jam:Oh, dude. Nice. I'm excited. I've always been fascinated with helium and have known so little about it. I do remember, I think watching something or maybe a teacher at some point trying to describe to me about the voice changing part, but, that'd be, like, way back my memory.
Jam:So I'd have, like, Barely a spitball of a guest to figure out what that is. But the shortest thing
Melissa:Oh, interesting.
Jam:Zero idea about what's going on there. I've never even heard of I never even thought about Where healing comes from and how we get it. Like, that is how little I've thought about if there's even enough of it also.
Melissa:That's so interesting that you hadn't heard about that. And that's part of why I wanted to do this. Because when I was thinking about talking about Helium with your voice changing, I was like, we can't really talk about that without talking about the shortage, and I I think, yeah, there are a lot of people who don't know. So but it's well known in the scientific community.
Jam:And and helium's what we put in our cars. Right? So our cars used to drive. Something like that. Right?
Melissa:No. Don't spread misinformation. Also, it's so interesting that you are so fascinated by helium. I I don't feel like I would have given helium any thought at all if it wasn't for me being a chemist.
Jam:I think I just add because it's got 2 interesting things, which I guess really are part of the same thing probably probably The probably the same thing probably from the chemistry standpoint, but, their ability to, like, a balloon floats And just can go up and up and up. And then also the voice changing thing. Those are 2 things that, as a kid, are obviously awesome. Balloons are the best. Your voice changing and being funny is the best.
Jam:But as an adult, the part of me that's still a kid, still loves those things and still is like, yeah. I'd never really. There's still some magic there that didn't ever get lost for me.
Melissa:I'm gonna take that magic away.
Jam:Well, I mean, I like I said, some teachers have tried to, like, explain it, but it is still it's still magical, I would say.
Melissa:Yeah. Or maybe I'll enhance your magic.
Jam:There we go. I think I think the science part enhances it for for a lot of us.
Melissa:Okay. Before we talk about anything else Okay. Helium is very important.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:It's an inert gas. And because it cools at such a low temperature, it's very or becomes a liquid at a low temperature. In its liquid form, it's very valuable.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Helium is used in a ton of medical and scientific equipment, and it's like MRIs, NMRs, they're both used to either save life directly by taking imaging of MRIs. When my mom was in the hospital, she got tons of MRIs to help us know what was going on in her body Mhmm. And for NMRs, that is a scientific equipment that basically helps just look at molecules the same way MRIs look at human bodies. Mhmm. And both of them use very similar well, the same technology.
Melissa:So both of those use helium. It's in a in a quite a few other things in terms of scientific equipment and medical equipment. It's used in other things for sure. Those are the 2 big ones that I think of. It's also, I think, used in scuba diving.
Melissa:So helium is used in a lot of places besides just balloons.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So it's important. It's important for science. It's important for medical health reasons. It is also wildly insanely expensive. I actually found 1 article that said that there were some scientific researchers who had to forfeit their salaries over the summer in order to afford it for their lab.
Jam:Woah. Are you serious?
Melissa:Mhmm. So that's crazy. I know. And it's also really concerning because the answer to the question, is there a helium shortage, is yes.
Jam:Oh, no.
Melissa:There is a shortage of helium. So the scientific community is concerned. One video, the one about, there's an ACS reactions video about brewing beer, aerating it with helium, the scientist in that video said he considers that to be one of the foremost problems facing the scientific community or the chemistry community, at least
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Is the shortage of helium. So very big deal. Helium, very important to science and medicine, and, also, there is a shortage, and, also, that's a scary shortage.
Jam:Dang. Yikes.
Melissa:But here's the thing. Helium is the 2nd most abundant element in the universe.
Jam:Really?
Melissa:So the question then is, if it's the 2nd most abundant element in the universe, why is there a shortage?
Jam:That is a yeah. That's a crazy question. Also, is carbon the first?
Melissa:No. Hydrogen's the first.
Jam:Oh, Okay.
Melissa:I was kind of wanting to go in to talk about all the reasons that that hydrogen is the most and helium is the 2nd most, and, basically, it has to do with how helium forms. Mhmm. But we didn't have time to do that and talk about the shortage and talk about balloons changing your voice. So
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And I have reached out to an astrophysicist to talk about the origins of the elements, so, So, hopefully, we'll be able to do a whole episode on that.
Jam:Nice. And that would be not just heating, but other elements as well and would kinda be a, all in one. Dude, that'd be awesome.
Melissa:Yeah. So it's super important. It's the most abundant element in the universe, but not on the planet.
Jam:Universe not but not planned. Okay. I was like, for some reason, I didn't think about that, little Qualifier there.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it you're like, how can there possibly be an abundance if or a shortage if it's the 2nd most abundant in the universe, is because helium does not stay very well on our planet. It's very light. It's the 2nd lightest element behind hydrogen.
Melissa:And it's so light, in fact, that it can escape the gravitational pull of the Earth. So it doesn't stay here in our atmosphere.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:There is helium in our atmosphere, like, in the air that we're breathing. Mhmm. But it is very expensive to try to harvest helium from the air. And, actually, they had a similar problem with nitrogen, a long time ago because nitrogen is used to fertilize plants and help food grow.
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:And they invented a process, you might have heard of it, called the Born Haber Cycle to fixed nitrogen. It's there's a really interesting episode about Radiolab about it. So, basically, you it's a way to fix nitrogen in the air and to make it usable to fertilize plants and everything Yeah. They haven't come up with a cost effective method of doing that for helium. So the the helium in the air is basically not worth it.
Melissa:It's kind of a moot point.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:It's too light to stay in the universe or it's too light to stay in the atmosphere, and it's really hard to fix the helium that's in the atmosphere into usable helium that we have on hand. So there's only 1 place left for us to get helium. Do you wanna guess where that is?
Jam:Okay. So we're not gonna go out to space just to get it Right now
Melissa:Nope.
Jam:That'd be even more expensive than trying to just process what's in our air, right, most likely. In our air, it's too hard to get it. How about beneath us?
Melissa:That's exactly right.
Jam:Dang it. Why would there be helium down there?
Melissa:So there have been radioactive materials in the core of the Earth that have broken down and let off helium Adams for years years. Oh. And they are trapped under the earth's surface.
Jam:I was gonna say like, Haley, what are you doing down there? Come on. Get out of here. Go there.
Melissa:So yes. Now can you imagine if we can't trap the helium from our air and we can't trapped the helium we only can trap the helium under the ground, how hard it would have been to actually discover helium.
Jam:Yeah. Seriously.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:How what the heck?
Melissa:That was one of the crazy, crazy cool stories that I found.
Jam:Oh, I So I'm in. I'm ready.
Melissa:I know. It's so cool. So they discovered helium in outer space before they discovered it on Earth.
Jam:Seriously? Mhmm.
Melissa:So they I'm not sure exactly what tools they were using, but, basically, they were observing a supernova
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:I think, in the 18 sixties.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And they saw it's hard to explain, but, basically, each element has, like, a fingerprint of light that it gives off.
Jam:Mhmm. It's
Melissa:called an emission spec spectrum. And so they saw a type of that fingerprint that they hadn't seen before.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And they were like, wait a second. That's a new element. So then it took them nearly 30 years
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:To to find it on Earth after that. And it was someone who was studying the nitrogen in rocks, captured some gas, studied the gas, and realized it was the same gas that they had seen in the supernova.
Jam:But Oh, wow.
Melissa:Isn't that amazing?
Jam:That's insane. So wait. You said it was 30 years later? What?
Melissa:It was it was almost. I think it was, like, 20 seven or something.
Jam:I'm gonna miss it. Did you say what the 1st year was when they were saw the fingerprint light fingerprint?
Melissa:I think it was 18/68. Okay.
Jam:Man, that's crazy.
Melissa:I can double check real quick. Okay. I went real quick to check the article and see if the date was right, and the date was right. It's 18/68, but I was wrong about the supernova. It wasn't a supernova.
Melissa:It was an eclipse of the sun. Says it was, a total solar eclipse. Okay. So and this was actually really fun because I found an old paper that was written in 1920 for the journal Nature, which is still a really big deal. Mhmm.
Melissa:That is still a really well known and renowned journal, and it just talks about the discovery and applications of helium. It was so fun to read and sort of feel like I was a part of the history of chemistry. So I found all kinds of really cool stuff, like I said, when I was researching this. So I went back and looked at that 1920 article to confirm the year and that it was a solar a total solar eclipse, not a supernova.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:So that's the the history of how they discovered it and then how they discovered it on Earth when they were treating rocks to get the nitrogen gas to come out, captured the gas, and it was actually helium gas instead. And it was 27 years after they found it in space, which it's so amazing to me that in the 18 sixties, they could even study space.
Jam:Yeah. That's that's one thing that kinda blew my mind because you could've said, Like, somewhere in the middle of 1900, then I was was so amazed. Like, oh, they saw this, like, weird light fingerprint, and they noticed that that must have been Some element blah blah blah. Like, it's kind of amazing no matter when you put it, no matter when you place it in time. Like, 18 sixties or whatever.
Jam:That's nuts.
Melissa:I know. It really is crazy. So all that to say, there is a helium shortage right now for sure. The way they get helium from under the ground is they mine it as a byproduct of the natural gas industry.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But so, you know, that makes sense. But it doesn't always make sense financially for them to do that. So I read it was hard to do this without my textbooks. I relied heavily on the National Geographic and the Scientific American, but I read that they're actually Sorry.
Jam:And you don't have your textbooks because they are
Melissa:They are locked in my office. Right. So I was at home taking care of some family stuff
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:At my parents' house. And then I came back to Denton and attempted to go to my office and was formed that our university had been entirely locked down, and I was not allowed to go to my office.
Jam:Yeah. The university and our whole town Dane County.
Melissa:Yes. Yeah. Mhmm. So I am going to have to get special permission to meet up with someone who is essential staff to be allowed to go on campus, I'll say 6 foot apart from her, and try to go get my things that I absolutely need to be able to teach class because I am without quite a bit. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
Melissa:So I relied heavily on digital resources, National Geographic, Scientific American, and I have 2 digital textbooks that I used basically to write this whole story.
Jam:Nice. Digital for the win.
Melissa:Digital for the win. So glad I invested time in getting those digital resources on my computer a few years ago.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:But I don't have my modeling kit, which for organic chemist who's going to have to review all of OHEM one and OHEM two prior to the final that happens, the end of this semester, it is a bit of a bummer Yeah. To not have that. So we'll see what I can do.
Jam:So you're seeing some marshmallows, some toothpicks, some straws.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. That would actually I've told my students before they can use marshmallows. Yeah. Okay. So, back back to our story.
Melissa:I don't know why I said that so weird. It's so much harder to do this in a new environment. I know. I'm, like, listening to everything happening, wondering if you can hear it.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Okay. So going back to our stuff about helium, it doesn't because it doesn't always make sense financially for them to process the helium byproduct, there are literally only 14 plants in the world that refine helium into liquid form according to this National Geographic article.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:7 of those are in America. And this is really exciting to me and probably to Jam because just 6 hours away from us
Jam:Oh.
Melissa:In Amarillo, Texas
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:A place that I've spent quite a bit of time one of my closest friends grew up in Amarillo, that family I was telling you about that got me to love Halloween there from Amarillo.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And, actually, my significant other, his family is from Amarillo. I've spent a lot of time in Amarillo. Mhmm. So in Amarillo, Texas, just 6 hours away from us, there is the Federal Helium Reserve.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And I had no idea about this, but Amarillo is the helium capital of the world.
Jam:What?
Melissa:I know. Isn't that crazy?
Jam:Little Amarillo. Like, what?
Melissa:I know. I thought Amarillo literally, I described Amarillo as thinking that it was a major city like DFW, but actually just being a little town in the middle of nowhere.
Jam:Yeah. No offense guys over there, but, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. There's a lot of places like that.
Melissa:Yes. And now I realize how wrong that I was. Because it's actually the national helium cap it's the helium capital of the world.
Jam:And, of course, that does make them a bustling metropolis.
Melissa:It does make them a pretty big deal.
Jam:Yeah. Not a big deal. Can you imagine? It's like, we didn't even think about the helium industry, and it's like Everybody's parents, stuff like that, are employed by the helium industry over there or something.
Melissa:I had absolutely no idea.
Jam:It's the Silicon Valley of Or it's the Helium Valley or I don't know.
Melissa:I thought that that was amazing.
Jam:That is so crazy. I seriously would never have expected that. I've been there A bunch of times too. Most of the kid haven't been there in in a number of years now, but I just would never have suspected. Not that I would have thought no.
Jam:Not not that anyone would have been able to peg it. It's like, oh, yeah. That seems like the the kind of place for Helium for sure. But Yeah. So weird.
Melissa:I know. I know. It really is so weird. Well,
Jam:you go, Amarillo.
Melissa:You go, Amarillo. And this is where I found the excerpt that I thought that you would really appreciate, so I'm gonna go ahead and read it to you? Awesome. This was on an article from Atlas Obscura. It was an article about Amarillo because they have a monument called the helium time column monument.
Melissa:So it's stainless steel, and it was built in 1968. Does that date sound familiar?
Jam:It does. Wait. You said hon
Melissa:1968? 1968.
Jam:So a 100 years.
Melissa:A 100 years after the discovery of helium, it was built in Amarillo. And it so it has 4 capsule columns for time capsules.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And each one of them hold, like, books and artifacts and things that will tell future generations about what life was like in 1968.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And it reminds them of the importance of efficiently using natural resources, which I thought was kinda cool because the helium is in a shortage. So it's cool that they're talking about efficiency of using things, and it's welded into 4 helium filled columns. So each of those columns will be opened. I think it's 25, fifty, 101000 years
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:On. Right? Well, here's the line that I thought you would love. It said, in May 1993, the 1st time capsule is opened during a 2 day celebration. In 50, 100, and 1000 years from a time of filling, the remaining 3 columns will be opened assuming we haven't run out of natural resources and there is anyone left to open them.
Melissa:It's just so dark.
Jam:Yeah. It is. It's really it's, like, really just trying to be realistic, but whenever you're that starkly realistic, it does sound dark. Assuming I know. It's like if you say it with a flat tone too, assuming there's even anyone alive to care or even be here, any conscious Sentient beings to
Melissa:I just thought it was really hysterical and so dark and funny and the exact type of thing that you would appreciate in the middle of an article about a time monument. So
Jam:Absolutely. Anyways,
Melissa:I thought that that was really funny.
Jam:I like that.
Melissa:So Helium, I I knew it. I was like, I can't wait to read this to Jam. Okay. So that's pretty much it. I just wanted to talk to you today about the reason there's a helium shortage even though it's the 2nd most abundant element in the universe.
Melissa:Mhmm. And I wanted to let you know about the fact that it's a big deal with scientists because helium really matters for literally life saving research and medical imaging.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And I wanted also to encourage you guys to not use helium to fill your balloons. So I looked into it, and, actually, a pretty small percentage of helium is used annually in filling balloons. But one interview I read, the person, it was a scientist, basically said, think we're just gonna look back and be amazed at the fact that we allowed Helium, which is such a valuable resource to be used on such frivolous activities.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And I really agree with that. I think in time, we'll look back at our usage of helium in balloons and in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and all of that, and just wonder why we didn't regulate it sooner.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Who knows how many things we'll think that about, but this seems like definitely one of those ones that For a lot of us, regular folk would not have even crossed our minds. I mean, seriously, would have never thought that that would be an important thing to be saving.
Jam:You know what I mean? It just kinda seems like because most of us don't know about those important uses in science and medicine.
Melissa:We Yeah. It
Jam:we just think of it as a really fun kind of thing. So it's like, unless you start with that, There's important uses people don't won't be convinced at all that it's, like, important to save or whatever. So that's, yeah, that's crazy.
Melissa:It is really crazy and amazing, I think, just that Helium is so well known for that one thing Mhmm. And not for its, you know, really life altering properties that we use it for. And I think that's drove a lot of science. Like, sci chemistry, especially, is known for blowing stuff up, and people constantly ask me if I can make meth. And it's like, yeah.
Melissa:I can do that, but, also, I can make life saving medicine. That's also what chemistry does. Or Yeah. Chemistry is the reason your soap works. You know?
Melissa:It's like chemistry is everywhere, and we only know it for this, like, banner things that we learn.
Jam:Yeah. Do you wanna know how So how time capsuled my memory of Helium is?
Melissa:Oh, yes. I'd love to.
Jam:So I cannot think of Helium without thinking of my earliest memories of interacting with it as a kid are balloons that my brothers and I would get at Blockbuster. The Blockbuster would always have these colored balloons with their logo on it that you could buy.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:They were filled with helium. And I could not tell you why they did that. Like, in my mind, it makes so much sense, at least as a kid, that they had Mhmm. Unit tanks and balloons and sold them And they're a video rental store. So don't know what was going on there.
Jam:Maybe they just knew that they could actually sell them because kids come in.
Melissa:But Oh, a 100%. They were just they saw an opportunity, and they took it.
Jam:Yeah. But as as a kid, we I loved getting those balloons, and we would, like I I cannot think of Blockbuster, which is funny now because it's so, You know, gone. And it's its own example now of of the past in a in a way Yeah. Of a a very specific, You know, chunk of time where that was, like, the king of of home media and potentially also Could be the case with Helium where we look back and think of it as, like, this time period where we use it in a way that was irresponsible. And Yeah.
Jam:It's funny that those are so linked for me at least. But
Melissa:That is funny. On the topic of balloons Mhmm. My sister, friend of the podcast, Renee Collini, sea level rise extension worker expert
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Was with me when I was writing this episode up. Yeah. And she wanted me to tell you that I would be remiss well, she told me that I would be remiss if I didn't
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Tell you that balloons are terrible.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They're bad for the environment. The plastic can end up in whale stomachs just as much as your straws or your grocery bags or whatever. So please eliminate your use of onetime plastic in addition to eliminating your use of helium.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So try to not use balloons filled with helium or regular air for the environment and the medical and scientific industries.
Jam:So balloons are a double whammy. They're a double offender.
Melissa:Yeah. Thanks. Isn't that crazy?
Jam:Seriously. That makes sense, though. Yeah. So it's not really, like, a, like, a thing for me to explain back per se, but should I try to my best to recap what I understood From this episode?
Melissa:Yes. I was thinking it would be beneficial for you to explain why there's a helium shortage even though It's very abundant in the universe. And whatever other fun facts that you gleaned from this episode. So it's a little bit different, but I think it's really worth it before we dive into the question about how helium changes your voice.
Jam:Totally. Totally. Okay. So, helium is the 2nd most abundant In the universe element in the universe.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:That's not true, though, within our specific planet. And It's in the air, but it's hard to capture and use that way. It's out in solar system, but it doesn't make sense to try to go just go Edit or something as if our space travel is to that level where we can just run some errands out there.
Melissa:Right. Right.
Jam:And It I'm trying to remember exactly. You said it just doesn't really stay in one place Very well. Right? So if it's in the air, it just kind of all around mixed with all the other gases that are in the air as well.
Melissa:It's mixed in with all the other gases, so it is in the air, but there's a specific reason it can escape Earth's atmosphere. Do you remember what that was?
Jam:Is it because it's one of the lightest?
Melissa:Yes. Yes. Mhmm.
Jam:This is it also what what number is it in terms of lightness?
Melissa:It's number 2. Okay. So helium is the 2nd on the periodic table. Hydrogen is the 1st.
Jam:So they're also, in terms of, like, weight. They're also in terms of you said hydrogen's the most abundant. So they're Yes. They're both
Melissa:But it doesn't follow after that. So the 1st and second on the periodic table are 1st and 2nd lightest, and they're the 1st and 2nd most abundant, but I don't think it follows be that trend beyond the 1st and second Got it. Elements. The the mass follows, but the abundance doesn't follow.
Jam:So it can rise super easily and escape our atmosphere really easily. Right And go back go out and be with its friends in space.
Melissa:Unlike us, we can't be with our friends in space.
Jam:Not yet. We're coming, guys. So the place where it can be found most easily is a place where it Can't really escape, which is underground, in pockets where other gases might also be. And it's not floating up because at least until it's uncovered, it can't. And so we've got some helium in pockets Underground somewhere.
Jam:And that's our own that's our easiest and cheapest way to get it Yes. Rather than trying to figure out how to suck it out of the air.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Interesting. Man, that's crazy. Is that right?
Melissa:It is crazy. Yeah. That was right. That was that was great. And then everything else I shared with you is pretty much just fun facts that I was really excited about as I was learning about chem the chemistry of helium.
Melissa:So or the history of helium. So.
Jam:Anna, a huge takeaway for me that we already reiterated a little bit was just how important it is in in other things like Science and medicine, which I had zero idea about. So even caring at all about how hard it is to get, it's like, Before this recording, I would have been like, oh, no. We can't do the parades anymore. Dang.
Melissa:Right. If you knew there was a shortage, that's all you'd think.
Jam:Yeah. And I wouldn't have thought that's a big deal. Okay. We'll see we'll find some way to make these balloons float. We'll, like, you know, put drones on them or something.
Jam:But
Melissa:Put drones on them. Yeah. That would probably work.
Jam:But knowing how useful it is for Very important life saving science and medicine does make a huge difference. And then then knowing it's a shortage, just like, oh, dang. That's we gotta figure that out.
Melissa:Yeah. It's crazy. It really is. And I think it's a scientists are gonna have to really be creative in figuring out ways to either continue using those things without helium and or figure out how to fix a helium from the air
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And use it in a cost effective way. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's it for this week. Instead of doing something that happened in our weeks, Jam and I wanted to do something a little different this week.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So this week, we wanted to dedicate this episode to my mom. She's a person who asked me this question, and I've shared some about her battle with cancer. Sir, it was a very aggressive cancer. She was diagnosed in December, and this past week, she passed away. And we felt it would be not genuine to just gloss over that.
Melissa:And we try to be open with you guys about what's going on in our lives, and you've heard a lot about my mom through this show. So we really wanted to take a minute to honor her, and I wanted to share some stuff about her for this episode. So we're gonna go ahead and dedicate this episode to her. And don't worry. I answered her questions about helium, although I didn't know everything when she asked me about it.
Melissa:She actually asked me several years ago about Helium, so I did answer her. I wish I could share even more of this stuff with her now because I know she'd be so excited, but she was really the kindest, most genuine person I've ever met. And I know a lot of people say those things about their mom, but I've I have honestly never heard a single person speak ill of her. She was gentle, and she was very intelligent, and she was so empathetic and curious. Every person who she ever worked said she was an incredibly hard worker, and she had such a strong sense of what's right and wrong.
Melissa:I remember when we were little, she would worked extra hours to get all her paperwork done, but she felt like it was important. She should have been able to get all done in her normal 40 hour work week, so she would never log in for overtime. You know? She just really wanted to be honor her work commitment and to work well and hard, which I just is amazing to me. Just like what a good person, not greedy, not trying to get extra, just trying to do the best job she could do.
Melissa:And I really felt it was important to honor her in this podcast because she's the person who, sorry. It's a little emotional. She's really the person who fostered a love of learning in me. She loved science, and she was constantly pursuing knowledge. She loved going to conferences and learning about her job.
Melissa:She was a hand therapist, so there was a scientific element to learning about hands and how they worked and what methods were the best to facilitate rehabilitation and hand usage after strokes and stuff, and she just loved learning about that even to the very end. And she taught us so much. When we were children, we didn't have a lot of money, and she worked really hard to make sure that we still learned and we had a good, rich, full of love and laughter and learning childhood. And that is why this podcast is here today. I mean, so many other people have helped along the way, but she planted that seed for for me.
Melissa:And she was so excited about the podcast. When we started it, she was so excited. She would listen and asked me questions about every single episode. And even before that, like, in this episode, she would always text me and ask me questions about chemistry. And she said that without me in her life, there was a lot she would have missed about chemistry, and she was so thankful that I shared that with her, and that's part of what I hope people take away from this podcast is learning about chemistry and taking some of that curiosity and love of learning that my mom had and having that in your life.
Melissa:So I just really wanted to take a minute to share that about her, that she really showed me how to love learning and be excited about learning and made me wanna share it with people because she was always so happy to hear about it. And I really want you guys to be able to have some of that in your life as a result of this podcast as well. And I just also wanna remind you that life is really short, And you should gather the people that you love around you and spend time with them and pursue work that you love and that brings you joy and that brings joy to other people. Boom. So because of all that, we'd like to dedicate this episode to Alice.
Melissa:Wherever you are now, I love you, mom. I'm fine. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to do that and share that with her. Share about her with you guys here on the podcast. And thanks for learning and loving learning, Jam.
Melissa:I really appreciate it, and I appreciate that from all of you guys as well, all of our listeners, have been so amazing and have given me a really good opportunity to turn off my brain and remember why I love my job through this whole experience. So I'm really thankful to all of you guys.
Jam:And, Me and the rest of the listeners wanna thank your mom for, for doing that and for teaching you, and And we're thankful. I'm thankful that to get to do this, and I'm thankful that you love science so much and that you wanna share with me and so many other people. So, Alice, thanks so much for Having such a special daughter and for sharing her with all of us. Mohsen, I have a lot of ideas of topics for chemistry in everyday life, but we wanna hear from you. So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us at Gmail or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at chem for your life.
Jam:That's chem, for your life to share a 1,000 ideas. If you enjoy this podcast, you can subscribe on your favorite podcast app. And if you really like it, you can write a review on Apple Podcasts. That helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the costs of making it, go to kodashfi.com /chem for your life, and donate the cost of a cup of coffee.
Melissa:This episode of chemistry for your life was created by Melissa Colini and Jam Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jame Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to Inul and V Garza who reviewed this episode.