Helium-3—a variation of the helium used in balloons—can reduce temperatures to nearly absolute zero, provide non-radioactive medical lung imaging, and detect neutrons emanating from smuggled nuclear devices. It may even be an element of a clean energy source. For decades, this non-toxic and non-corrosive gas has been in adequate supply, but now that supply is dwindling just as demand is rising dramatically.

An online project that puts access to an extremely powerful electron microscope into the hands of students all over the country has been selected by the journal Science to win the monthly Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE).