Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Artificial radioactive element melting point -- °C; -- °F boiling point -- °C; -- °F density -- g/cc; -- pounds/cubic foot
1958 Albert Ghiorso and co-workers, Berkeley, Calif., USA
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)

The first preparation of element #102, is had been announced by three different research groups:

• The first group, consisting of scientist from Argonne National Laboratory, USA, Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment, England and the Nobel Institute of Physics, Sweden, reported the isolation of element 102 in 1957. This group included P. R. Fields, A. M. Friedman, J. Milstred, H. Atterling, W. Forsling, L. W. Holm and B. Astrom. They irradiated a target of Cm 244, Cm 246 and Cm 248 with Carbon ions, obtaining an isotope with mass number between 251 and 255, but with atomic number considered to be 102. This group proposed the name Nobelium in honor to Alfred Nobel. According to Hyde & Seaborg (1973) this discovery proved to be a premature claim.
• In 1958, Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, J.R. Walton, and Glenn T. Seaborg at the Lawrence Radiations Laboratory, University of California succeeded in the by bombardment of Curium with Carbon ions. They detected the isotope 254 with a half-life of 3 seconds. This group identified the isotope 255 prepared through the irradiation of Cf 252 with boron ions. This is now generally accepted as the first preparation of element #102.
• The third group of scientists working in 1957 at the the Объединенный Институт Ядерных Исследований (ОИЯИ) - Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) at Дубна (Dubna) in the former USSR, also reported the production of isotopes of element 102. Their attempts involving irradiating Pu 239 and Pu 241 with Oxygen ions were not very successful. Only in 1963 they were able to report the detection of No 256 through the irradiation of U 238 with Neon ions and using a method similar to the other research groups.

New name
John and Gordon Marks suggested in 1994 the name Cyclonium (Cy) after the cyclotron which identified many actinide elements. The Marks brothers found the old names ugly and confusing. They offered alternative names that are equivalent contemporary (at the time and place of discovery) metaphors, both more euphonious and more memorable (note).

The Nobel Foundation has in its Nobel e-Museum a complete biography on-line.

• Mary Elvira Weeks, Discovery of the Elements, comp. rev. by Henry M. Leicester (Easton, Pa.: Journal of Chemical Education, 1968), pp. 851-852.
• Earl K. Hyde & Glenn T. Seaborg, Transurane : Teil A 1, I: Die Elemente. Gmelins Handbuch der anorganische Chemie, Ergänzungswerk zur 8. Aufl.; Band 7a. Weinheim/Bergstrasse: Chemie, 1973.
• Glenn T. Seaborg, Early History of LBNL, A transcript of the lecture on the 65th Anniversary of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, August 26, 1996 (on-line).
• A. Ghiorso, T. Sikkeland, J.R. Walton, and G.T. Seaborg, "Element No. 102". Phys. Rev. Lett. 1 (1958).