Premium helium.

高級氦氣。

You know the thing that powers all childhood birthday parties with plenty of upright floating balloons.

你知道所有的童年生日派對都有大量直立漂浮的氣球的動力。

Without it, you could say that the party would be pretty deflated.

如果沒有它，你可以說黨會很洩氣。

What is known as the second element of the periodic table helium is considered a noble gas that is actually the second most abundant element in the entire universe, right behind hydrogen.

被稱為元素週期表第二元素的氦被認為是一種惰性氣體，實際上是整個宇宙中第二豐富的元素，僅次於氫。

However, here on Earth, it's actually not that common at all.

不過，在地球上，其實根本就不常見。

For the past several decades, the soaring demand for this rare earth element has caused concerns to grow over an increasing shortage of the gas as well as the unknown future of its use.

在過去的幾十年裡，對這種稀土元素的需求量急劇上升，使人們對這種氣體日益短缺以及其使用前景不明的問題日益關注。

And while fewer party balloons would certainly be pretty sad, it also means the lack of resource is required for very important industries.

而少了派對氣球固然會非常可惜，但也意味著非常重要的行業所需資源的缺乏。

The desperately require helium in order to survive, But first, perhaps it makes some sense toe look back and see exactly how helium was discovered and what it's even used for in everyday life.

為了生存，人們迫切需要氦氣，但首先，也許回過頭來看看氦氣到底是如何被發現的，以及它在日常生活中的用途，是有意義的。

Besides just your average party balloons, the formal discovery of helium can actually be traced all the way back to the late 18 hundreds, when two Swedish chemists found several trace amounts of the element.

除了一般的派對氣球，氦氣的正式發現其實可以追溯到18世紀末，當時兩位瑞典化學家發現了幾種微量的元素。

But it wasn't until the early 19 hundreds that large reserves of helium were first discovered as part of natural gas fields within the United States.

但直到19世紀初，美國境內的天然氣田才首次發現大量的氦氣儲量。

After the discovery and determination that helium was, in fact lighter than air, the United States Navy first sponsored several experiments which developed into the world's first helium filled airships.

在發現並確定氦氣事實上比空氣輕之後，美國海軍首先贊助了幾項實驗，發展成世界上第一艘充氦氣的飛船。

It was shortly after this that the United States government, recognizing the element strategic value, decided to set up what is known as the National Helium Reserve in Amarillo, Texas.

就在這之後不久，美國政府認識到這種元素的戰略價值，決定在德克薩斯州的阿馬裡洛建立所謂的國家氦氣儲備。

It came to be at this location primarily due to the fact that there are so many natural gas fields nearby.

之所以會在這個位置，主要是因為附近有很多天然氣田。

And being that helium is often a byproduct of natural gas refining, it made it very easy to store there.

而且由於氦氣往往是天然氣提煉的副產品，所以在那裡儲存非常方便。

As the 20th century progressed and helium became critical for military airships as well a space exploration.

隨著20世紀的發展，氦氣成為軍用飛艇以及太空探索的關鍵。

The U.

U.

S.

S.

Government mandated that all private helium producer sell their stores to the reserve so that it could be stored for safekeeping some 3000 ft below the surface of the earth in porous rock, capable of holding more than one billion cubic meters of the gas in order to prevent any of it from escaping back up to the surface.

政府要求所有私營氦氣生產商將其儲存的氦氣出售給儲備庫，以便將其儲存在地球表面以下約3000英尺的多孔岩石中，以便安全保管，該岩石能夠容納10億立方米以上的氣體，以防止任何氣體逃回地面。

In fact, the National Reserve is so big that you could essentially fill it with an equivalent volume of 400,000 Olympic size swimming pools of peer helium gas.

事實上，國家保護區如此之大，基本上可以裝下等量的40萬個奧運會大小遊泳池的同行氦氣。

And while this all might sound extreme, it prevented the export of a scarce resource at the time of which the United States had an essential monopoly on it, preventing other countries from using the helium for their own blimps or military use.

而這一切聽起來似乎很極端，但卻阻止了美國當時對這種稀缺資源的基本壟斷出口，防止其他國家將氦氣用於自己的飛艇或軍事用途。

Which is why the German Zeppelins, like the Hindenburg ended up using hydrogen and well didn't really end up faring too well.

這也是為什麼德國的齊柏林飛機，像興登堡號最後使用了氫氣，好在最後並沒有取得太好的成績。

But beyond just military use.

但不僅僅是軍事用途。

As the 20th century progressed, helium began to play an even larger role.

隨著20世紀的發展，氦氣開始發揮更大的作用。

And while certainly today balloons are perhaps the best known use of the element, there are much more important uses that are mostly unknown.

當然今天氣球或許是最知名的元素用途，但還有更重要的用途大多不為人知。

For example, in the medical field, helium is used to cool the super powerful magnets that are used within magnetic resonance imaging machines or M r.

例如，在醫療領域，氦氣被用來冷卻磁共振成像機或M r.內使用的超強磁體。

I's these machines take extremely detailed images of the body and are used to diagnose all sorts of ailments and injuries.

I's這些機器採取非常詳細的身體影像，並用於診斷各種疾病和傷害。

Being that helium is one of the coldest substances on Earth, one place into its liquid state, it doesn't amazing job cooling the super powerful magnets within the machine.

作為氦氣是地球上最冷的物質之一，一個地方變成液態，它不會驚人的工作冷卻機器內的超強磁鐵。

Additionally, helium is often used in the everyday technology space as well as several different stages of the production process for semiconductor chips relied upon by phones, TVs, computers, tablets and mawr, meaning the likely the device that you're watching this video on right now has some reason to think helium for And these are just a couple examples of the many industries that rely on helium, and the problem is that all of these industries are growing across the world.

此外，氦氣還經常被用於日常技術領域，以及手機、電視、電腦、平板電腦和mawr所依賴的半導體芯片生產過程的幾個不同階段，這意味著你現在正在觀看這段視頻的設備很可能有一些理由認為氦氣為 而這些只是依賴氦氣的許多行業的幾個例子，問題是所有這些行業都在全球範圍內增長。

And as they grow, the demand for helium grows to mix.

而隨著他們的成長，對氦氣的需求也越來越大，以混。

This in combination with a major change in the industry over the last several decades and worries over the supply are growing, too.

再加上過去幾十年行業發生了重大變化，對供給的擔憂也越來越大。

It all really began in the 19 nineties when the U.

這一切真正開始於19世紀90年代，當時美國。

S government decided that it didn't need as much helium on hand, likely because airships and spacecraft were being seen as less important to national security and thus began the drawdown of the supply in the National Reserve.

S政府決定手頭不需要那麼多的氦氣，可能是因為飛艇和航天器對國家安全的重要性降低了，是以開始縮減國家儲備的供應量。

It was then that President Bill Clinton signed into law the Helium Privatization Act, mandating that the U.

當時，比爾-克林頓總統簽署了《氦氣私有化法案》成為法律，規定美國。

S.

S.

Government sell off its supply of helium to private industry.

政府將其氦氣供應出售給私營企業。

Combined.

結合。

This with the fact that much of the world's usable helium is obtained as a byproduct of natural gas extraction, which we as a world are trying to get away from more and more as newer and more renewable options become available and well, you have the perfect storm for a major helium problem.

再加上世界上大部分可用的氦氣是作為天然氣開採的副產品獲得的，而隨著更新和更多的可再生選擇的出現，我們作為一個世界正試圖擺脫越來越多的天然氣，是以，你有一個完美的風暴來解決主要的氦氣問題。

In the near term, it's critical that helium production continues as it's so critical to so many industries today.

從近期來看，氦氣生產繼續進行是至關重要的，因為它對當今許多行業都至關重要。

Three countries hold the majority of the helium gas in storage, including the United States with 3.9 billion cubic meters, Algeria with 1.8 billion cubic meters and Russia with 1.7 billion cubic meters.

三個國家擁有大部分的氦氣儲存，其中美國擁有39億立方米，阿爾及利亞擁有18億立方米，俄羅斯擁有17億立方米。

There's other countries to like Poland, Australia, Canada, Qatar and China that also hold helium in storage today, but in much smaller quantities.

還有其他國家，比如波蘭、澳洲、加拿大、卡達和中國，現在也有氦氣儲存，但數量少得多。

Today we are already using almost 200 million cubic meters of helium across the world each and every year, and this is expected to continue to grow year over year over the next decade, and as the demand continues to outpace the supply, the reserves aren't going to last forever.

如今，我們每年在全世界已經使用了近2億立方米的氦氣，預計在未來10年內，這個數字還將繼續逐年增長，隨著需求量持續超過供應量，儲備量不會永遠持續下去。

Of the 7.5 billion cubic meters, they're in storage today around the world.

在這75億立方米中，如今它們在世界各地的存儲。

It'll only last our demand for the next 37 or so years if production came to a complete halt.

如果完全停產，只能維持我們未來37年左右的需求。

And that's why it's critical that we continue producing helium at a consistent rate.

這就是為什麼我們必須繼續以穩定的速度生產氦氣的原因。

It's also important to note that there are likely only so many remaining sources of helium left on earth as well.

還需要注意的是，地球上剩下的氦氣來源可能也只有這麼多了。

For one, the granite type rocks that produce it are not that abundant in the first place, and large natural gas fields which are sometimes helium rich, our ever decreasing, and we aren't finding any new large ones either.

一是生產它的花崗岩類岩石本來就不是那麼豐富，而大型的天然氣田，有時是富含氦氣的，我們的不斷減少，而且我們也沒有找到新的大型天然氣田。

Scientists estimate that there are 51.9 billion cubic meters of helium that have not yet been captured below the earth's surface, including the known large deposits in the United States, Algeria, Qatar, Russia, China and Canada.

科學家估計，在地球表面以下還有519億立方米的氦氣尚未被捕獲，包括美國、阿爾及利亞、卡達、俄羅斯、中國和加拿大等地已知的大型礦藏。

Assuming that all of this helium could be captured, it would likely last for several 100 years.

假設這些氦氣都能被捕獲，很可能會持續幾百年。

But what about beyond that?

但除此之外呢？

We may end up having to look elsewhere beyond our home planet.

我們最終可能不得不在我們的母星之外尋找其他地方。

For example, it is noteworthy that several countries are looking at the moon for helium or specifically helium three, which could be used to create nuclear fusion plants, which are not even radioactive at all.

比如，值得注意的是，有幾個國家正在月球上尋找氦氣，特別是氦三，可以用來製造核聚變裝置，而氦三根本就沒有放射性。

And further, many of the large gas giant planets like Jupiter are known to contain helium and helium, three that could be captured as well once the limited supply of helium runs out on Earth.

而更進一步的是，許多像木星這樣的大型氣態巨行星都含有氦氣和氦氣，一旦地球上有限的氦氣供應耗盡，這三種氣體也可以被捕獲。

Sooner or later, humanity will be forced to expand our reach out into space to these other bodies in order to secure more of it and continue fueling our industries and filling our balloons.

遲早有一天，人類將被迫把我們的觸角伸向太空，伸向這些其他的天體，以確保更多的天體，繼續為我們的工業提供燃料，為我們的氣球填滿。

Therefore, the desire for helium will probably end up becoming one of the catalysts for space exploration and colonization in the future.

是以，對氦氣的渴望最終很可能成為未來太空探索和殖民的催化劑之一。

But whatever the case, we know that our helium supply on earth isn't gonna last forever.

但無論如何 我們都知道地球上的氦氣供應不會永遠持續下去 But whatever the case, we know that our helium supply on earth isn't gonna last forever.

In the near term, new helium producers like the new production facility and cutter as well as the Amir gas plant in Siberia, are critical to the demand for the element worldwide.

從近期來看，新的氦氣生產商，如新的生產設施和切割機以及西伯利亞的阿米爾天然氣廠，對全球對該元素的需求至關重要。

This, along with global stability and free trade, should ensure that anyone who needs the resource will indeed have it for many years to come.

這一點，再加上全球穩定和自由貿易，應能確保任何需要資源的人在未來許多年內確實能夠得到資源。

But in the future, we may just have to get more creative and look beyond Earth if we continue using this important resource.

但在未來，如果我們繼續利用這一重要資源，可能就只能更有創意，把目光投向地球之外。

If there's anything that humans are good at, is learning new skills in order to overcome difficult challenges that come our way.

如果說有什麼是人類擅長的，那就是學習新的技能，以克服我們遇到的困難挑戰。

Solving the world's helium crisis is going to be a massive, humanity uniting event that will take a lot of us together to figure out.

解決世界的氦氣危機將是一個龐大的、人類團結的事件，需要我們很多人一起想辦法。

But there's probably at least a few smaller personal challenges the you might be facing right now alone, if that's the case and you have a big personal goal for this year or passion project that you're excited to start, but you're uncertain about having the skills required to do it just yet.

但可能至少還有一些較小的個人挑戰，你現在可能正獨自面對，如果是這樣，你今年有一個大的個人目標或激情項目，你很想開始，但你不確定是否具備所需的技能，還沒有。

Skill share can help if you go and visit them.

如果你去拜訪他們，技能分享可以幫助你。

Next.

下一個

Want to get started creating your own animated informational videos on YouTube?

想開始在YouTube上創建自己的動畫資訊視頻嗎？

My good friend Evan from Polly Matter has an entire class on there called Make animated YouTube videos that I'd highly suggest.

我的好朋友Evan從Polly Matter那裡有一整堂課叫做製作YouTube動畫視頻，我強烈建議。

Or maybe you want to get started creating more traditional YouTube videos that you film yourself with a camera you can dive in on classes like D.

或者，也許你想開始創建更傳統的YouTube視頻，你用相機拍攝自己的視頻，你可以在像D這樣的課程上潛水。

I.

I.

Y.

Y.

Filming, creating pro video with tools you already own by Mark Curse Asimo or introduction Aerial videography.

拍攝，用你已經擁有的工具製作專業視頻，由馬克咒阿西莫或介紹空中攝像。

Creative direction for drone filming by Wild Rabbit Productions or plenty of others.

野兔製作公司或大量其他公司的無人機拍攝創意指導。

When you become a member of skill share, you could take these classes as well as thousands of others on nearly any subject you can imagine, ranging from writing and photography, toe Web development and graphic design, any of which can help you find a new passion.

當你成為技能共享的成員，你可以採取這些課程，以及成千上萬的其他幾乎任何主題，你可以想象，從寫作和攝影，腳趾網絡開發和平面設計，任何可以幫助你找到一個新的激情。

Help you get ahead in school or give you the skills needed for career advancement.

幫助你在學校取得進步，或者給你職業發展所需的技能。

It's the absolute perfect activity for whenever you're stuck at home or have a lot of free time.

每當你被困在家裡或有很多空閒時間時，這絕對是最完美的活動。

And with its varying difficulty levels, it's still great whether you're a beginner or an expert.

而且它的難易程度不一，無論你是初學者還是專家，都還是很不錯的。

And best of all, you can get a completely free trial of skill share premium by being one of the 1st 1000 people who follow the link down in my description.

最重要的是，你可以得到一個完全免費的試用技能共享溢價是一個1000人誰按照我的描述中的鏈接下來。

By doing this, you can achieve all of your own personal learning goals and help support my channel at the same time.

通過這樣做，你可以實現你自己所有的個人學習目標，同時幫助支持我的管道。

So go ahead and check them out.

所以，去看看他們。