CHICAGO, Oct. 19 -- A supplier has told Joe Sachleben's University of Chicago lab it will get half the helium it used last year, so he must choose which research machines to sacrifice. His backup supplier is no surer, Sachleben told CBS News' 60 Minutes in a segment broadcast Sunday: "we never know if they're gonna say, 'Oh, this week, we don't have any.'"

The squeeze starts in Qatar, whose Ras Laffan complex was hit by Iranian missiles in March and whose helium has been bottled up since by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar's Emir told his Shura Council last week that Qatar's revenue fell 42 percent in the first half, citing both the closure and damage at Ras Laffan.

By TEH's arithmetic from the US Geological Survey's 2026 esti...