A global helium shortage has doctors worried about one of the natural gas’s most essential, and perhaps unexpected, uses: MRIs. Strange as it sounds, the lighter-than-air element that gives balloons ...

Amid political and economic turmoil, Qatar has closed its two helium production plants, Reuters reports. Qatar is the world’s second-biggest producer of helium, the gaseous element that sits at the ...

Which is your favourite chemical element? To mark the International Year of the Periodic Table, our science journalists will be arguing for their pick from the 118 known elements. In this instalment, ...

Unlike most industrial gases, helium is finite, non-renewable on human timescales, and once released, it is gone forever. The ...

Helium is a critical element for chipmaking, medical diagnostics, quantum computing and cryogenics. It could also kickstart ...

Immediately after the Big Bang, before the first stars in the Universe ever formed, the Universe consisted of hydrogen (element #1), helium (element #2) and pretty much nothing else. Despite ...

The world’s known helium reserves just ballooned. Applying gas-finding techniques from the oil industry, scientists uncovered a vast reservoir of more than a trillion liters of helium gas beneath ...

Discovered in the 1800s in the solar spectrum, helium has been an element that has eluded humans for centuries. Despite being listed as one of the most abundant elements in the universe, this noble ...

Scientists have understood for some time that the most abundant elements in the Universe are simple gases like hydrogen and helium. These make up the vast majority of its observable mass, dwarfing all ...

A global helium shortage is popping a giant hole in Party City's sales, forcing the retailer to close 45 stores across North America. The party supplies retailer blamed the helium shortage for its $30 ...