Helium is one of the periodic table’s inert gases — it doesn’t interact in any meaningful way with other elements — and that stability makes it ideal for high-tech manufacturing, where it’s can create protective environment any time elements are combined to create products such as silicon wafers.
There’s a Helium Shortage On — and It’s Affecting More than Just Balloons
Stop talking in that squeaky voice and get serious. From MRI machines to semiconductor manufacturing, here are a few of the things we'll have to do with less of thanks to a global helium shortage.