Helium shortage

Just heard from Ferenc on yesterday's project leaders' meeting that helium, the most inexpensive noble gas, will reportedly be exhausted in the not so far future, maybe in as little as thirty years. This is quite surprising because helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen; however, most helium is concentrated in stars, such as the sun, being the product of the H + H nuclear fusion, and the concentration on earth is relatively low. There is very little helium in the earth atmosphere because the gas is chemically inert, and the light mass of the He atom makes it very easy to escape into the outer space. The main source of commercial production of helium is from natural gas, whose supply, according to various estimations, can be depleted in not so many years from now.

Today, apart from being used in many research labs like ours, helium is also used in almost every balloon, blimp and airship, because of its light weight and inflammability (unlike its infamous alternative hydrogen). Maybe we should all conserve on using helium so effusively from now on. Financial speculators, stock helium!

Regensburg trip

I made a trip by train to Regensburg on Sunday with some Chinese friends. It was a nice trip, and the €25 ticket for five people anywhere across Bavaria is just great. Some of the pictures have been posted in my picasa web album.

Regensburg is a very old city, dating back to the Roman times, and was also an important free city in the Holy Roman Empire. It was the site of the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) between 1663 and 1806, which is often called the Perpetual Diet because it had been in continuous session during this long time, until the dissolution of the empire after the Napoleonic Wars. We took a guided tour in the Reichstag. Even though the tour was in German, the English handouts were very informational with a lot of background, so I enjoyed it a lot. The torture chamber in the basement is amazing. Makes you appreciate how much the world has advanced since those days, when confession, often extracted by torture, was considered the only legal means to convict a person.

The city sits on the confluence point of the Danube and the Regen rivers. There is a big island in the Danube, so we went to the park on the island, and whiled away a couple of hours. Fall is really the best time of the year, with beautiful foliage everywhere. But a busy week is again ahead of us....

Blog reopening

I haven't written anything on this blog since opening an account here over a year ago. This is my first post, and I will try to write something from time to time. Welcome to make comments. :-)