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"A dream. It's perfect": Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 4 months ago by L4s to c/technology

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"A dream. It's perfect": Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America::For a century, the U.S. Government-owned the largest helium reserve in the country, but the biggest exporters now are in Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. With this new discovery, Minnesota could be joining that list.

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[–] [email protected] 186 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (90 children)

Hopefully we stop wasting this limited resource on fucking balloons.

Edit: well this kicked off a fun and respectful conversation. The information I can find from actual scientists says wasting helium on balloons is bad. The balloon lobby says it is just a waste byproduct. The balloon lobby brings nothing of value to the world in terms of plastic or helium use, so I'm going to go with the science opinion on this one.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (5 children)

I think for balloons we should switch back to hydrogen. What could possibly go wrong?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Probably not much. The hydrogen that a party balloon would contain could certainly make a small, exciting explosion, but it probably wouldn't have enough energy to set anything else on fire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

It's a common high school chem lab demonstration. Without added oxygen, the H2 balloons sort of burn from the outside in, and you get a sort of slow burning mushroom plume. It could light paper or cloth on fire in close proximity.

With added oxygen... BLAM! It could shatter windows.

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