Mendelevium - chemistry.

Mendelevium - chemistry. Mendelevium, symbol Md, artificially created radioactive element with an atomic number of 101. Mendelevium is one of the transuranium elements in the actinide series of the periodic table (see Periodic Law). Named for the Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev, mendelevium-256 was discovered in 1955 at the University of California, Berkeley; it was produced by bombarding einsteinium-253 with alpha particles accelerated in a cyclotron (see Particle Accelerators). The isotope produced had a half-life of about 1.3 hours. The most stable isotope, mendelevium-258, has a half-life of just over 51 days. See also Radioactivity. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.