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Some of our medical machines were invented under the assumption that Helium would be dirt cheap. Once the price of helium rises those machines will become absur
by shadofx 8y ago
Some of our medical machines were invented under the assumption that Helium would be dirt cheap.
Once the price of helium rises those machines will become absurdly expensive to operate, and people will start dying of treatable diseases.
Not your stated problem, but still a thing to keep in mind.
- danmaz74 8y agoDon't worry, the market will sort that out too. The rich will have the machines, and only less worthy individuals will die. /s
- ISL 8y agoAs the price rises, helium recapture and liquefaction will become more common. As recapture and liquefaction becomes more common, the price of the necessary equipment will tend to drop. There is an experiment in our lab (ADMX, an axion search) for which it is already financially more expedient to re-liquify. In addition, new cooling technology is becoming more prevalent. Closed-cycle pulse-tube cryocoolers are becoming common throughout physics.