3 ms·
Yes, you are correct. Contrary to gold, however, which is largely useless and ornamental (aside from some marginal use in microelectronics), helium is necessary
by IntrepidWorm 4y ago
Yes, you are correct. Contrary to gold, however, which is largely useless and ornamental (aside from some marginal use in microelectronics), helium is necessary for a large amount of critical medical infrastructure, as well as research at cryogenic temperatures, superconductors, etc. To see helium steeply rise in price according to supply and demand would spell disaster for many of these applications.
- lisper 4y agoAlso, gold doesn't spontaneously escape into space if it's not contained.
- amlib 4y agoBut it might get robbed if not properly secured..
- lisper 4y agoUnless it's robbed by space aliens, that doesn't diminish the recoverable supply.
- dredmorbius 4y agoThat all depends on the temperature ;-)
- lisper 4y agoIf that ever becomes a factor, helium (and gold for the matter) will be the least of our worries.
- dredmorbius 4y agoOn the bright side, there would probably be no worries.
- teruakohatu 4y agoThe meme that gold is useless is not true. It is not used nearly as much as it could be due to price, but it has plenty of medical uses: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187395981100086X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187395981... If gold were as cheap as iron, it would be ubiquitous in society.
- someguydave 4y agoI guess cryptocurrency hate is spilling over into precious metals now.