A Visual Encyclopedia of the Periodic Table

126

Actinides

Fm

100

State: Solid

Discovery: 1955

101 101 157

Mendelevium

Md

101

This artificial element was

named after the Italian scientist

Enrico Fermi. He built the first

nuclear reactor in 1942, starting

the American effort to build nuclear

weapons during World War II.

Fermium was first identified in the

debris of an atom bomb test in 1953.

This unstable element has no known

uses beyond research.

Mendelevium is named after the Russian

chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, who invented

the periodic table. Mendelevium is produced

in very small amounts by firing parts of helium

atoms at einsteinium atoms in a particle

accelerator (a machine in which atoms

are smashed together).

100 100 157

State: Solid

Discovery: 1953

Some

scientists call

Enrico Fermi the

“father of the

atomic age”.

Enrico Fermi

Dmitri Mendeleev

periodic tableMendeleev’s

Mendeleev’s notes from 1869

show his method of arranging

elements in columns and rows.

Fermium

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