Nobelium (No)
Nobelium: The Element of Controversy
Nobelium is a synthetic, radioactive metal that doesn’t occur in nature. Only tiny amounts—just a few atoms at a time—have ever been made. With a half-life of only 58 minutes, it quickly decays and has no practical uses outside of scientific research. The element is named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prizes.
A Man-Made Element
Nobelium is created in a particle accelerator, where scientists bombard curium atoms with carbon ions. This fuses the nuclei together to form a new, heavier element: nobelium.
History of Nobelium
The discovery of nobelium is one of the most disputed stories in chemistry, with multiple teams claiming credit:
1956: A Russian group led by Georgy Flerov produced element 102 by bombarding plutonium with oxygen, but they did not officially report their results.
1957: Scientists at the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockholm announced they had discovered the element, but their claim was later shown to be incorrect.
1958: At the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (USA), Albert Ghiorso and his team claimed discovery, but the Russians challenged this.
1962–63: The Russian team at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna successfully created and identified several isotopes of nobelium, confirming their earlier work.
1997: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially credited the JINR team as the true discoverers.