by Kathi Leiden | May 27, 2015 | Helium, Helium Science, Helium Uses
Inside the hard disk drive (HDD) in your computer is what resembles a short stack of small DVDs. Called platters, these oscillating, magnetic disks are where data is recorded and transferred, and are the reason why you can turn off your computer without losing your...
by Kathi Leiden | May 26, 2015 | Helium, Helium Stunts
Almost exactly two years from the date of Felix Baumgartner’s hugely hyped, Red Bull-sponsored space dive, a computer scientist quietly and secretly dove from an even higher elevation from under his own helium balloon. On October 14, 2012, Baumgartner jumped...
by Kathi Leiden | May 25, 2015 | Helium, Helium News, Helium Stunts
What’s the best way to demonstrate the effectiveness of your product if you’re a smartphone case manufacturer? Put an iPhone in its protective case, strap it to a helium balloon and send it up into the stratosphere. And that’s exactly what Urban...
by Kathi Leiden | May 22, 2015 | Helium, Helium Science
The smallest known vortexes, with cores just an atom in diameter, have been discovered hidden inside tiny droplets of helium. When liquid helium is cooled to -271° Celsius (-455.8 F), it transforms into what is known as a superfluid, where any rules of ordinary liquid...
by Kathi Leiden | May 21, 2015 | Helium, Helium Science
Perhaps the most interesting fact in the recorded history of helium is where it was discovered. We didn’t find it on our planet. In fact, it was first discovered over 92,900,000 miles away from Earth. 1868 August 18 of 1868— a full 93 years before the first...
by Kathi Leiden | May 20, 2015 | Helium
On May 6, 1937, while attempting to land at the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey at the end of a two-day transatlantic flight from Frankfurt, Germany, the Hindenburg airship unexpectedly burst into flames and crashed to the ground. In just 32 seconds, the...
