Endangered Elements
See helium in the top right corner? Helium is important for MRI and MRI is important to literally see what’s wrong with people. Think about it before buying a helium filled balloon. I wrote more about the helium reserve here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ChadHaney/posts/99SpR28xBme
Originally shared by Compound Interest
Today’s post is a collaboration with the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute, looking at some of the ‘endangered’ elements on the periodic table. Learn more about them here: http://wp.me/p4aPLT-1o4
August 21, 2015
I notice that a lot of these are significantly less rare in near-Earth space resources (asteroids, the Moon). This is especially true of heavier metals, such as iridium and platinum.
August 21, 2015
That’s something I was always curious about. Glad to see I wasn’t imagining that it could become a problem.
August 21, 2015
Gert Sønderby
that’s also how they got to Earth
August 21, 2015
Trump will probably propose to start mining asteroids using immigrants.
August 21, 2015
Tomáš Hluska Well, yes and no. Most of the heavy metals on Earth are tucked away in the deep mantle, because they’re denser than the other materials the planet is made of. Some remained when the crust solidified, I expect some has come up from the mantle with the circulation that takes place in it and drives plate tectonics. A small amount probably did come from extraterrestrial impacts.
August 21, 2015
Greg Batten, we have a liquid nitrogen blanket on 1 of our magnets. The other magnet has a cryogenic recycling system so that we only have to top off the helium once per year.
August 21, 2015
Brenden Magill did low temp stuff that used He Isotopes that are just unavailable now. Granted that is because of governmental policies, but some kinds of He being unavailable stops new low temp programs
August 21, 2015
Helium in general is a real problem now. If you haven’t had the money to but a closed cycle system and your department doesn’t recover and liquefy He then you basically no longer can do low temperature stuff. It is really frustrating.
August 21, 2015
As I mentioned on Carissa Braun ‘s reshare, l Indium-111 is an important isotope for SPECT imaging, particularly in cardiovascular disease.
August 21, 2015
Brenden Magill, our 9.4T has a recovery system. Our 7T has a liquid nitrogen blanket. It would be nice to retrofit the 7T. Most of the people using liquid He here are tied into the cryogenic core that recovers lost He. I read an article about MRI in Hawaii. You don’t want to know how much liquid helium costs there.
August 22, 2015
The amount of liquid He being used nowadays on newly designed superconducting magnets used in MRI medical imaging technology is just a fraction of the amount that was used ten years ago. Thanks to the advancement in cryocooler designs which makes liquid Helium recycling possible. This is a good thing as liquid Helium is so scarcely available.
Nice post Chad Haney!
Hope things have been good …
August 22, 2015
I do appreciate the one recycling unit we have, Tom Lee
August 22, 2015
I know liquid He is also used in LHC as well as superfluidity experiments…. sad that we have not managed this resource better. I guess we have no option but to mine the Moon now – http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Preparing_for_the_Future/Space_for_Earth/Energy/Helium-3_mining_on_the_lunar_surface
August 22, 2015
It might be hard to convince the public that running out of arsenic would be a serious problem, but it is seriously endangered, according to the table.
August 22, 2015
Richard Green Guess we men need to stop telling women to make us sandwiches, then? 😉
August 23, 2015
Can’t we synthesize helium? I know there are real efforts to create sustained fusion plants as soon as possible. That would be a perfect source for artificial helium.
August 23, 2015
K Gordon not in the near future
August 23, 2015
Chad Haney I wouldn’t be suprised. Just a few years ago sustaining fusion wasn’t possible. Now we are just trying to refine it to give more energy than we are using to sustain it.
August 25, 2015
There’s a very simple solution to this. Make it more expensive.