/sci/ - Science & Math

1) Helium

2) Carbon

4)Heroin

5) cats

5) cccombo breaker!

1) Spice melange
2) vespene gas
3) unobtanium
4) element zero
5) scrith

>>3311960

I was being serious about this. The US sells off helium for way way below market value. It's far more rare that most people realize.

>>3311983
Except that's the second most abundant element in the universe and all.

Carbon.

1) protein
2) whey
3) protein
4) creatine
5) roids

>>3311991
yea, lemme just fly out there and bottle some up.

ass.

1)tequila.
global warming is killing all the blue agaves :(

>>3311991

Oh, was this thread about what resources the universe is running out of or was it about what earth is running out of?

Because there are limited obtainable quantities of it here on earth.

>>3312022
NASA is doing that as we speak.

>>3312028
not stated, i would assume earth.
and i feel like hes lurking for the answer: oil

>>3312028
OP didn't specify, so why assume?

>>3311991


yeah, the problems with helium are 2 fold:


1) it is only found in natural gas reserves. It does not form mineral compounds, as it is a "very" noble gas.

it is basically just mixed in there.


2) it escapes THE ATMOSPHERE when it is released as a gas.

unlike argon, helium is light enough to literally "outgas" from our upper atmosphere.


this is why the earth's atmosphere is not full of helium.


we pull the stuff out of the ground and 100% of it is ultimately released into the atmosphere (after being used for whatever purpose).


yet the helium concentration at sea level is lower than most toxic gasses.

realistically there are few things we are truly running out of.


the question is, what USES are going to no longer be economically viable once the cost of production of these materials increases.


we will have petroleum and natural gas for a very, very, very long time.

so long that we will, realistically, never truly "run out" of it.

but we will get to a point where extracting/refining petroleum makes it too expensive to use for cheap fuel.


we never need worry about plastics, pharmacueticals, or the myriad other uses for petrochemicals... but cheap gasoline and natural gas for heating and power generation, as well as cheap diesel and whatnot...

that may eventually be impossible.

brb guise, hoarding helium for the impending disaster

>>3312084
ROFL

OP asked for important resources which are running out, you guys.

American females that aren't complete cunts
Atheists
Honest Politicians
Money
Alcohol

Shit, I'm an important resource that's running out.

Actual Scientists
Honey bees
Lithium
Tight vaginas
Crystal Meth

>>3312575
I'm serious guys, once I'm gone, there'll be no more of me!

>>3312611
unless the cloning industry takes off in the next 20 years.

Love

War hardened Russian men fluent in english but with strong accents
Unbiased Scientists
Honey Bees
People who want to colonise space
DXM

>>3312593

>>Lithium

http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1034758_study-lithium-fears-unfounded-plenty-to-meet-ev-demand

>>3312709
>>3312593


actually the deal with lithium shortage has nothing to do with lithium itself.


one of the 2 isotopes of lithium is required to make thermonuclear weapons.

consequently, natural deposits of lithium have essentially been completely depleted of this specific isotope of lithium.

almost all natural samples of lithium (accessible to humans, not deep within the crust or mantle) have been ANTHROPOGENICALLY enriched with respect to their natural abundance.

yes. humans have actually "dented" the natural distribution of lithium isotopes near the earth's surface.
this is only relevant if you are building a device that involves some type of particle process.


it has no real effect in materials science or chemistry.

>>3311977

1. Water
2. Oil/Gas
3. Steel
4. Rare Earth Metals
5. Father Figures (lolidk)

1. Good Girls
2. Good Girls
3. Good Girls
4. Good Girls
5. Good Girls

>>3312076

Hahahaha.
>Oil and natural gas for a very, very long time.

Oh that's a good one. Please read: Wiki - Peak Oil.

Also: 9/11, Iraq, Libya, and most of the Middle East/Africa shenanigans.

>>3313011
Also please refer to: American political system, err... I mean American plutocracy.

>>3313011

listen buddy, you know and understand very little of the relevant information.

Humans have been extracting about 200 million years worth of the earth's organic material. we have roughly another 2 billion years worth of mineral deposits.


As I said, we will never run out of petroleum. Never. Eventually, however, It will be so expensive to produce, that it no longer becomes economical to use it to power our cars, or fire our natural gas power plants.

we will still use it for pharmaceuticals, plastics, and all of the other widely varying uses of petrochemicals. we will never lack for plastic. we will never lack for photolithography mask polymers for making semiconductors. we will never lack for raw feedstock for pharmaceuticals. in fact, we will never lack for gasoline, but at a certain point $20/gallon gasoline just is not reasonable.

>>3312800
>>3312800

>steel
wut?

>rare earths

this is actually a misunderstanding. I made the same mistake myself.

the "rare earth shortage" is not really a shortage in the available abundance of the minerals on the planet earth. Rare earth production is a complicated economic situation

in the late 1980s, early 1990s, China began subsidizing big gigantic mineral extraction operations. The subsidization allowed China to utterly destroy the market for rare earths, dropping the prices to ridiculously low levels.

before this happened, there were mines all over the earth: California, Australia, and Russia produced hundreds of thousands of tons of Indium, Hafnium, Iridium, Platinum, Palladium, rhodium, Rhenium, etc... all of the rare/noble metals that are used in electronics and high performance materials.

those mines still exist. They simply shut down because they were outcompeted by Chinese mining operations. This was the case for about 15 years, maybe more. The world became complacent. China has recently steeply decreased the amount of exports. Literally "overnight" (actually over the course of maybe 2 years) China dropped the export quota to like 10% of its historical value. Whether or not they INTENDED to manipulate the market in this way, or they simply were faced with the reality that they must protect their own domestic electronics industry's supply chain is up to speculation. at the end of the day, we are not running out of rare earths. they will increase in cost, and the mines in California, Australia, and Russia will begin producing again. New mines in India/Pakistan, as well as Africa will probably also be developed.

>>3313086

Please tell me the difference between "running out of something" and "too expensive to extract." Because I'm pretty sure the end result is the exact same.

>>3313086

We will never lack for gasoline?
So while the world keeps growing and countries keep developing and use more gasoline, what happens to demand? It goes up.

But what's happening to supply? We've hit a peak in oil production. New wells ARE running out. Supply is decreasing. Google: Peak Oil.

So energy demand is increasing but supply is decreasing. This is a HUGE problem! This problem will absolutely define our generation. Dick Cheney absolutely got one thing right when he said, "This is a war that will not end in our lifetimes."

>>3313563
The huge majority of petroleum on earth isn't in underground pockets.
It is way harder to process tho. And may ruin ecology even more