A Visual Encyclopedia of the Periodic Table

127

Actinides

Nobelium

No

102

State: Solid

Discovery: 1965

103 103 163

Lawrencium

Lr

103

Lawrencium is named after the US scientist

Ernest Lawrence, who developed the first

cyclotron particle accelerator. This is a

machine in which parts of atoms are smashed

together by making them spin round in circles.

Lawrencium atoms were produced in a

similar machine by firing boron atoms at

californium atoms.

This artificial metal

is named after the

Swedish chemist Alfred

Nobel, who started the

Nobel Prize. It was

discovered in 1963 by a

team of scientists working

in California, USA. This

team included Albert

Ghiorso, Torbjørn

Sikkeland, and John

R Walton. They used

a particle accelerator

to fire carbon atoms at

curium atoms, creating

nobelium atoms, which

broke apart within minutes.

102 102 157

State: Solid

Discovery: 1963

Lawrencium

was produced at

the Berkeley

lab set up by

Ernest Lawrence.

An early cyclotron

Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, and John R Walton

126-127_Fermium_Mendelevium_Nobelium_Lawrencium.indd 127 02/12/16 6:53 pm