Read the whole article because it’s hilarious.
It isn’t, but as Thetimefarm above says, the paper trail is what matters. Medical grade liquid helium for MRI machines is a thing. That paper trail is what adds a few zeros to the cost.
As a side note, this is similar to why Fluke multimeters are so expensive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay9wFQAW19Y
tl;dw: companies have reams of documents for their certification procedures of equipment, and calibration of the equipment to certify the equipment, and they’re based around the specifics of Fluke mutimeters. They aren’t more accurate or even much fancier than a nice hobbyist meter. Those companies must buy Fluke or completely redo all their procedures with accompanying documentation and certifying by professional engineers. If you’re not such a company, don’t bother spending all that extra money on Fluke.
Medical grade or grade-4.0 is less pure than research grade or grade-6. That’s 99% vs 99.9999%.
Medical grade might be used for inhalation by patients and traces of other air is perfectly acceptable. MRI cryocoolers need more purity to keep the magnet cold.
https://www.westairgases.com/blog/exploring-the-most-essential-and-underappreciated-uses-for-helium
Amazingly people hate this concept, and it’s strange. We all got downvoted for pointing this out.
Yeah, it’s weird. Like yes, all these people put in a lot of effort to make sure that when people could die from equipment failure, we make sure that equipment is very, very good. Adding zeros to the price is the cost of that.