Helium shortages can be a real downer, and the world currently faces two of them. The better known shortage, with its price spikes and shortfalls affecting many industries (including party balloons), primarily concerns helium-4, the most abundant helium isotope in nature. Less well known, however, is a more severe shortage of the much rarer isotope helium-3. Essential for key scientific, medical, and national security applications, no one would dream of filling a balloon with it.

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