How the Qatar crisis shook up the world's supply of helium

© Rmarmion

Here’s a great example of how interconnected supply chains in the world have become. Helium is an essential component in a surprisingly wide number of products – the fact that it is lighter than air and able to cool to incredibly low temperatures without freezing means it is used in the construction of semi-conductors, computer hard drives and the Large Hadron Collider, as well as scuba tanks and rocket fuel, amongst a variety of other applications including, of course, birthday ...