Jun 12, 20222 min
Multiple university labs in the United States have already expressed their distress over the tight helium supply. Major research labs - most recently Harvard's labs - have commented that the short supply of helium is hindering their research and graduate classes. Havard has had its supply cut in half with the risk of damage to equipment and research impacts.
Harvard Professor Amir Yacoby said, “This is a tremendous blow", who estimates about 40% of his lab’s activity has been negatively impacted. “This crisis is not going to go away quickly.” At Harvard, researchers may have to shut down pieces of expensive technical equipment that rely on helium and liquid helium. In some cases, this could cause irreversible damage to the instruments and force some of the scientists to bring lines of research to a halt. Some ripple effects could include graduation delays for students whose thesis work depends on those projects.
“We are already in that worst-case scenario,” said FAS Dean of Science Christopher W. Stubbs. “The supply has been cut in half, so half of the experiments that rely on liquid helium have been shut down as a result. This impedes progress on both the scientific and educational aspects of our division.”
The shortage has forced some researchers who rely heavily on the element to make painful decisions to slow down projects. Philip Kim, a professor of physics and applied physics, says he’s had to shut down about half of his lab’s research activities that rely on cryogenic instruments.
“We use liquid helium to achieve low temperature for our experiment in several different cryostats and in applying high magnetic fields using superconducting magnets” said Kim, whose lab goes through about 3,000 liters (78mcf) of liquid helium per month. “We have six cryostats actively using and had to shut off three.”
Kim worries about the effect it will have on the research and futures of lab members. “Graduation of my graduate students might be delayed due to slow-down of their thesis work,” he said. “Postdoctoral research fellows’ research projects are also down as they also need to wait to be able to perform their experiments.”
Others at the university lab are scared that this shortage is still not as severe as it could have been. Since helium is a finite source, it may be enough to suffice the needs in our lifetime but will definitely be an issue for the generations to come. With the low supplies that are already in the picture, administrators and researchers fear how the next few decades will cope.