mendelevium
nounUK /ˌmɛn.dəˈliː.vi.əm/ · US /ˌmɛn.dəˈli.vi.əm/
Etymology
From a modified version of Mendeleev + -ium (suffix forming names of metal elements), named in honour of the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907) who formulated the periodic law and created an early version of the periodic table of elements. The word was proposed by a team from the University of California, Berkeley, comprising the team leader Stanley Gerald Thompson and members Gregory Robert Choppin, Albert Ghiorso, Bernard George Harvey, and Glenn T. Seaborg, who artificially synthesized the element in early 1955. (The same name was proposed, but rejected, for the earlier-discovered elements berkelium and erbium.)
Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences A radioactive metallic transuranic chemical element (symbol Md) with atomic number 101, which is artificially produced in a particle accelerator.
- Mendelevium, the heaviest and rarest form of matter known, has been produced in the University of California's cyclotron. Identity based on only 17 atoms of new element [subtitle]. […] Mendelevium is intensely radioactive, decaying by spontaneous fission. Its half-life is between a half hour and three hours. It has chemical properties similar to those of thulium, element 69, a rare earth.1955 May 14, “Element 101 Discovered”, in Science News Letter, volume 67, number 20, Washington, D.C.: Science Service, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 307, column 1:
- There's sulfur, californium, and fermium, berkelium, / And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium, / And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc, and rhodium, / And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin, and sodium.1959 (date composed), Tom Lehrer, “The Elements”, in Too Many Songs, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, published 1981, →ISBN, part 2 (From An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer), page 151, column 2:
3 more examples
- Seven new elements were discovered with the 60-inch cyclotron: 85 (astatine), 93 (neptunium), 94 (plutonium), 96 (curium), 97 (berkelium), 98 (californium), and 101 (mendeleevium).1963 January, “Physical Research: New Physical Research Facilities”, in Major Activities in the Atomic Energy Programs: January–December 1962, United States Atomic Energy Commission, United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, part 4 (Other Major Programs), page 336:
- In the expert hands of Enrico Fermi, beginning with 1934, neutron bombardment produced new atomic miracles. In 1940, Fermi created neptunium (Z = 93), the first artificial, 'trans-uranic', element. Others, also unstable, soon followed, among them fermium (Z = 100) and mendeleyevium (Z = 101).1987, R. S. Baghavan, “The Transformation from Quantity to Quality and Quality to Quantity”, in An Introduction to the Philosophy of Marxism, 2nd edition, part I, London: Socialist Platform, →ISBN, page 115:
- [Glenn Theodore] Seaborg would be the principal co-discoverer of ten elements on the periodic table: plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and element 106.2025 July, Iain MacGregor, “Notes [to chapter 6]”, in The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It, 1st Scribner hardcover edition, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, endnote 6, page 381:
- Derived terms
- Md, mendelevate, Mv
- Related terms
- Mendeleev