So, the question on everyone's mind these days is, "Since Hydrogen and Helium are lighter than air and have been escaping the atmosphere since, well forever, why is it still around?" Oh, you thought it might have been "Just how many times do I have to delete my trash before those emails are 'really, really' gone?" or along those lines! Nope. Nada!
So, how come, you ask? The answer is there is enough radioactivity going on around the earth that H and He atoms are constantly being generated n enough quantities that we are not going to run out of gas for party balloons any time soon. This and several other neat facts relating to radioactive decay and the byproducts created were touched upon by our own Dr. Tom Jourdan at last Tuesday's meeting.
Helpful hints on just how long to keep something in the fridge until carbon dating was no longer useful. Well over 50,000 years! Getting rid of radon gas. Simple exhaust fan will work because build-up is so slow. etc.
(FYI: excerpted from his UCO Faculty Intro Page) Tom "now holds two positions at UCO, those positions being Assistant Director, Forensic Science Institute (FSI) and Professor of Chemistry. Over the course of his career in the FBI, in addition to being a field agent and later an FBI Laboratory forensic examiner in the areas of chemistry and toxicology, he participated in a number of bombing investigations, to include Pan Am 103, the World Trade Center, Atlanta’s Olympic Park, UNABOM, Oklahoma City, and the Dar es Salaam and Nairobi U.S. Embassies, organizing the Bureau’s response to the latter two events as the Unit Chief of the Explosives Unit."