Helium

Helium, helium... The second element in the elemental table. Helium is a gas lighter than air, and is often kept in a tank for blowing up balloons. It is almost always in gas form, and cannot take any other form except under very rare and extreme conditions. Helium is the second most abundant element found on earth. Helium is odorless, colorless, and tasteless.

Helium is better than air in almost every category. It is seven times lighter than air, and transmits sound three times faster. It has five times air's thermal conductivity, and it does not become radioactive under irradiation. The only place where helium cannot beat airs is breathing- if humans all breathed helium, they would be dead. While it is non-toxic and fun to use for weird voices, it can kill a person very fast because of lack of oxygen.

So where does helium come from?

Helium is created by the radioactive decay of uranium and other elements, and then rises to the surfaces and mixes into the atmosphere. It is also extracted from other natural gasses. Many of the main natural gas deposits that supply the world with helium are located in:
Texas
Oklahoma
Kansas
Russia
Helium can only be taken from gas at a volume of 0.3 percent or higher. Any deposits with less are not worth extracting. The natural gas deposits mentioned above have over 3000 ppm (parts per million) of helium.

Structure of helium

The word "helium" comes from the Greek word "helio", for "sun". It was named by Pierre Jannsen and Norman Lockyer, who discovered helium in 1868. The name was perfect, because helium was discovered during and eclipse from a small strand of light from the sun, hence the name.