• aelwero@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    …and cue a 4,000% markup on what an MRI costs.

    Don’t worry though, I’m sure the price will go back down once the artificial shortage that generated it is addressed (chuckle)

    • Zoboomafoo
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      5 months ago

      On the plus side, we’re going to see a lot more funding for superconductor research

  • maniacal_gaff@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.

    I didn’t know that elements had a defined temperature. Bang up reporting there, NBC.

    • anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      Helium doesn’t freeze because quantum mechanics. gestures furious
      That means liquid helium can cool stuff to temperatures where nitrogen would be solid. This is used on the superconducting magnets in MRIs.

    • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      Elements certainly do have defined temperatures! In this case it’s the freezing temperature that matters, which for helium is… not.

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Well, they’re not really wrong, there’s are only two elements that make any sense to use here, helium and hydrogen.

      The thing is, the job they want these elements for is as a coolant. The best state of matter for a coolant is definitely liquid, a liquid flows much better and makes better contact for thermal transfer than a solid, and it’s much more dense than a gas (so it can pull more heat away).

      But, at these very low temperatures, the only elements that won’t freeze into a solid are helium and hydrogen. That said, hydrogen would make an even more efficient coolant than helium, so they’re wrong that helium is the only elements that works. Hydrogen is pretty impractical though, it’s hard to contain, it reacts with everything, it’s more expensive.

  • Jaytreeman@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    For years there’s been reports about how unnecessarily cheap helium is. For instance, helium balloons should be very expensive.
    If the companies buying this up sell it for what it’s value is, we could be looking at $100 helium balloons.
    MRIs could also get more expensive

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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    5 months ago

    the only element on Earth cold enough to make an MRI machine work.

    […]

    liquid helium, the Earth’s coldest element,

    What the fuck? The author clearly failed middle school science class. How did this article get past editorial review?

    • JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      What do you mean? Liquid helium does have the lowest boiling point, allowing for extremely cold liquid cooling.

        • Guest_User@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I kind of seeing like saying “the world’s fastest car”. It’s inferred that it has the ability to do that, not the the car never slows down or helium never heats up. Idk my 2c