| Mendelevium had been prepared in 1955 by Glenn T. Seaborg with co-workers by bombardment of Einsteinium-253 with helium ions. Only several atoms were obtained at the first time. At 1958 100 atoms were synthesized, which were identified as atoms of a new element. Mendelevium fission with electron emission produces fermium-256 which in its turn spontaneously decays with nuclear fission. Seaborg and his co-workers suggested naming the new discovered element mendelevium for the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev who had developed the periodic table, noting that they depended on his method of predicting chemical properties. |