![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/4WG4ZC5D5NOG6TBWPF5VRAHETI.jpg?w=798)
![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/4WG4ZC5D5NOG6TBWPF5VRAHETI.jpg?w=798)
In a free market, supply follows demand. But in the helium market, regulations set price and production, and with good reason. Helium gas—essential for MRIs, rockets, and space telescopes—is a limited resource. Radioactive elements in Earth’s crust emit helium, which gets trapped in natural-gas fields, and we then extract it—or let it escape as we burn the gas. Until recently, the U.S. made most of the world’s refined helium. Now it’s a global game. Here’s a history of the price, world production, and rising power of helium.
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![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/OJN2AL7DQII4MTSY2SKBXBEOMQ.jpg?strip=all&quality=95)
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this graphic mislabeled the values on the horizontal scale, including the location of the zero point. The horizontal axis range should read -2 to 6 billion cubic feet, not 0 to 4 billion cubic feet.
This article originally appeared in the August 2013 issue of Popular Science_. See more stories from the magazine here._