The World Is Running Low on Helium, and No, It's Not Just About Balloons Qatar supplies a third of the world's helium. Since an Iranian drone struck its main production facility earlier this month, and the Strait of Hormuz closed to tankers, that supply has essentially stopped. Spot prices have already doubled. The tsunami is coming; most people just haven't felt it yet. Here's the thing about helium: balloons are the least of it. Unlike every other gas, helium stays liquid at nearly absolute zero, 269 degrees below zero Celsius. Nothing else does that. Not nitrogen, not argon, nothing we can manufacture. That one freakish property is what makes it irreplaceable. Hospitals depend on it to keep MRI magnets cold enough to function. Chip manufacturers use it to purge contaminants and cool materials during the microscopic etching of circuitry, including the processors powering AI. There is simply no substitute. And once it escapes into the atmosphere after use? It's gone. Forever. On price: analysts warn a 60-to-90-day outage could push costs up 25-50% for buyers without long-term contracts, and a sustained disruption could see prices retest previous shortage peaks of over $2,000 per thousand cubic feet. MRI machines and rocket ships will likely get prioritized. Party balloons will not. Even if Qatar restarts tomorrow, you're looking at a minimum four-to-six month recovery. The world's most boring-sounding gas might be the most important one nobody's talking about.(Lark Davis)