Fermium is a synthetic, radioactive element with the atomic
number of 100. It gets is name
from the Nobel laureate Enrico
Fermi, who developed the first nuclear reactor. It has 19 isotopes, the
most stable with a half-life of around 100 days and the least with a half-life
of only microseconds.
The
discovery of fermium is an interesting story. It was originally discovered in
the debris from the first hydrogen bomb (known as Ivy Mike) test in
1952. These records were classified until 1955 because of tensions with Russia,
and the researchers who identified it at the University of California -
Berkeley scrambled to discover it through more civilian means.
They
were able to accomplish this and published their findings in 1954, but another
group had done the same. After the sealed records were declassified, the
discovery went to the research group at Berkeley.
There
are no uses for Fermium
outside of basic scientific research, and there are no known concentrations of
it on Earth because any of it that naturally occurred has since decayed into
other substances.
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