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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Why did they form at that time? Astronomers know from observing distant exploding stars that the size of the universe has ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover chemistry, from its small molecules to its big questions. Amid political and economic turmoil, Qatar has closed its two ...

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 ...

Kids may know that balloons are bad for wildlife. This is because, when it’s filled with helium, a balloon can travel many miles into the sky before it loses the ability to float. When it falls back ...