Everything Everywhere Daily Helium
Dec 11, 2025
Helium, the second-lightest element, is abundant in space but rare on Earth. It doesn’t easily form compounds and has unique properties, including superfluidity at low temperatures. The podcast explores its discovery through spectroscopes and terrestrial isolation, as well as its crucial roles in industries like cryogenics and aerospace. Excitingly, helium-3 is highlighted for its potential in fusion energy and quantum computing, with discussions of possible lunar mining. The future of helium could be more valuable than ever!
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Helium's Bizarre Physical Properties
- Helium is extremely light, inert, and exists mostly as helium-4 with trace helium-3.
- Its superfluid liquid state and near-impossibility to freeze at normal pressure make it uniquely bizarre.
Discovery Began With A Solar Eclipse
- Helium was first detected in the Sun during an 1868 solar eclipse via an unexplained yellow spectral line.
- William Ramsay later isolated the same gas from a uranium mineral in 1895, confirming terrestrial helium.
Earth's Helium Comes From Radioactivity
- Earth's helium mostly originates from alpha decay of uranium and thorium underground.
- That helium migrates upward and accumulates in natural gas pockets where it can be extracted.