Helium

PITTSBURGH -- Johns Hopkins University astronomers say they have detected and measured intergalactic helium believed to be left over from the birth of the universe.From that, they have figured out, for the first time, how much hydrogen existed along with the helium 10 billion years ago. That helps to confirm the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, and adds to the growing inventory of what is out there.There was so much of the two gases that the discovery multiplies the amount of matter now known to exist in the universe by a factor of 5 or 10, the astronomers said.

Johns Hopkins gynecologist Dr. Nikita A. Levy wrote an apology letter to his wife before wrapping a plastic bag around his head Monday and pumping it with helium, killing himself in the basement of his Towson-area home, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation. Along with the letter, he left behind multiple hard drives, computers and servers that police have seized and are scrutinizing, police said. More than 300 of Levy's current and former patients have contacted officers, fearing that they are pictured in images he is accused of secretly capturing, Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- The last Navy blimp was deflated decades %% ago, but Uncle Sam is still in the helium business. %%%% In former gas wells deep below the Texas panhandle, not far from Amarillo, the government has hoarded $1.3 billion worth of the inert gas. And even though the helium isn't vital to the nation's security, Washington is still spending millions to refine more each year.The gas is part of the National Helium Reserve -- a relic of the time after World War I when the War Department wanted to ensure a constant supply of the lighter-than-air element to inflate its fleet of airships.

The second most-abundant element in the universe is in short supply. Lighter than air and nonrenewable, helium is however quite rare on Earth, derived mostly from natural gas deposits. And recently it's grown scarcer. In the Baltimore area, some florists and party-supply businesses are scrambling to find new suppliers for the helium that floats their balloons. Most are paying more for supplies, while some have raised prices or temporarily turned customers away. Other industries are feeling deflated too; besides blowing up balloons and blimps, helium is used to eliminate oxygen in welding in the aerospace industry, to cool magnets in MRI scanners and to help deep-sea divers breathe a nitrogen-free mix of air. The supply-and-demand imbalance has become more acute recently in the United States, some experts say. The shortage results from cutbacks in global production combined with increased demand from industries such as health care and semiconductor manufacturing, experts said.

WASHINGTON -- In a process that will take months, if not years, Congress began to ponder whether taxpayers should continue subsidizing the Helium Fund, a program created in 1925 to ensure that America would never run short of the gas in the event of global blimp warfare.By that measure, the program has been a roaring success. The U.S. has accumulated a 176-year supply of the lighter-than-air element, along with $1.4 billion in debt. But the program has become an object of ridicule among fiscal analysts who call it a classic example of how government programs assume eternal life.

Astronomers may have found some of the matter that has been missing from the universe, new research suggests.Scientists have long puzzled over why the amount of matter they can see -- in the form of luminous stars, galaxies and so forth -- doesn't seem to be enough to account for the huge gravitational attraction that keeps those galaxies from flying apart.Thus researchers believe that as much as 90 percent of the universe may be made of "dark matter" that nobody can see.The big mystery has been, what would dark matter be made of?

CHICAGO -- Helium is the talk of the party balloon industry these days, and it is not a discussion being carried out in high-pitched giggles. The second most plentiful element in the universe is suddenly in short supply on this planet, and that means soaring prices for a lot of things, balloons included. "Some customers have told me they're just not going to sell balloons anymore because they can't get helium," said Chicago party wholesaler Lee Brody. "Everybody's scrambling." As raw materials crises go, the helium shortage clearly takes a back seat to the global oil crunch.

ST. LOUIS -- Listen up, prank callers and party clowns. The nation's supply of helium - the gas that has given rise to millions of party balloons and Donald Duck voices - is dwindling. In fact, the managers of the nation's lone helium reserve, in Texas, expect it to be depleted within 10 years. "It's a bad pun, and I've used it before, but the nation's demand for helium has just ballooned in recent years," said Hans Stuart, a spokesman for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the federal helium reserve near Amarillo.

O n Earth, water vapor condenses into droplets that fall as rain. On Jupiter , helium condenses as mist 6,000 miles below the planet's cloud tops, then forms helium "rai n." Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley say the helium doesn't rise as it does on Earth. The drops fall through a fluid atmosphere of metallic hydrogen toward the planet's core of rock and ice. At 62,000 miles below the cloud tops, temperatures reach 5,000 degrees C., with pressures 1 million to 2 million times Earth's.

Larry Walters,who gained national attention 11 years ago by soaring 16,000 feet above the Earth on a lawn chair strapped to helium-filled balloons, committed suicide on Oct. 6. He shot himself in the heart. He was 44. On July 2, 1982, he hooked up his lawn chair to 42 helium-filled weather balloons and soared some 16,000 feet above the Earth before landing eight miles away in Long Beach. He was spotted by two airplanes during the flight. He was fined $1,500 in the incident by the Federal Aviation Administration.

O n Earth, water vapor condenses into droplets that fall as rain. On Jupiter , helium condenses as mist 6,000 miles below the planet's cloud tops, then forms helium "rai n." Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley say the helium doesn't rise as it does on Earth. The drops fall through a fluid atmosphere of metallic hydrogen toward the planet's core of rock and ice. At 62,000 miles below the cloud tops, temperatures reach 5,000 degrees C., with pressures 1 million to 2 million times Earth's.

ST. LOUIS -- Listen up, prank callers and party clowns. The nation's supply of helium - the gas that has given rise to millions of party balloons and Donald Duck voices - is dwindling. In fact, the managers of the nation's lone helium reserve, in Texas, expect it to be depleted within 10 years. "It's a bad pun, and I've used it before, but the nation's demand for helium has just ballooned in recent years," said Hans Stuart, a spokesman for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the federal helium reserve near Amarillo.

CHICAGO -- Helium is the talk of the party balloon industry these days, and it is not a discussion being carried out in high-pitched giggles. The second most plentiful element in the universe is suddenly in short supply on this planet, and that means soaring prices for a lot of things, balloons included. "Some customers have told me they're just not going to sell balloons anymore because they can't get helium," said Chicago party wholesaler Lee Brody. "Everybody's scrambling." As raw materials crises go, the helium shortage clearly takes a back seat to the global oil crunch.

A year after a tethered tourist balloon stalled 200 feet over Baltimore's downtown, trapping 17 frightened passengers for two hours, the popular attraction remains grounded with no assurance that the gondola will rise above the city again. Yet the idle helium balloon that is still tied to a yellow winch next to the Port Discovery children's museum serves as a reminder of unresolved issues and painful memories. The board president of the nonprofit corporation that runs Balloon Over Baltimore Inc. would say only that the company is still "addressing issues" of the accident.

As many as 17 potential fuel vapor leaks have been found at an Exxon service station that state officials believe is a prime suspect in contaminating at least 127 Fallston-area wells with a noxious gasoline additive. Spokespeople for the Maryland Department of the Environment and ExxonMobil Corp. sparred yesterday over the significance of the leaks detected by a contractor for the oil company. MDE spokesman Jeffrey Welsh said preliminary testing late last week of the Upper Crossroads Exxon at Routes 152 and 165 in Harford County identified leaks in the station's gasoline storage tanks, piping and equipment.

HERE'S AN acrophobic's worst nightmare -- a giant helium balloon and 16 stranded passengers bobbing around like a child's toy for nearly two hours. But it happened Saturday at Baltimore's Inner Harbor to the 110-foot-tall Lindstrand HiFlyer balloon at Port Discovery. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, but the event drew national attention, and no doubt the images broadcast on television spurred millions to gratefully conclude, "Glad it wasn't me." It's been a rough year for the Inner Harbor's outdoor tourist attractions.

The third attempted launching in two years of the round-the-world Earthwinds Hilton Balloon was canceled yesterday, this time because of an accident that could have had serious consequences for two men aboard the craft.No one was injured, but several vital components of the complicated balloon assembly were damaged. Project officials could not immediately estimate how long it would take to rebuild the system, assuming that its sponsors decided to try again to get the $5 million craft into the air.Although a handful of balloonists have tried over the years to circumnavigate the Earth, none has ever succeeded, and some have died in the attempt.

MOSCOW - Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics yesterday for their theories on the behavior of very cold atoms - work that has already helped revolutionize medical treatment and could one day lead to vastly more efficient electrical devices. Two of the researchers, both native Russians, explained the working of superconductivity, where certain materials chilled to extremely low temperatures lose resistance to electric currents. The third physicist, born in Britain, solved the mystery of superfluidity, the quirky behavior of helium chilled to near absolute zero, minus 459.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Inner Harbor's HiFlyer helium balloon will rise above the Inner Harbor Memorial Day weekend, four months after Mother Nature pounded the gas out of the tourist attraction. The 110-foot-high balloon popped under the weight of February's record snow fall, but it has been repaired and prepped for its third tourist season with the help of three engineers flown in from England. "The balloon has weathered many storms, and not all of them snow," said Mark Rosenberg, the balloon's manager for Sky High of Maryland LLC. "But we're back."