History and Uses:

Mendelevium was first produced by Stanley G. Thompson, Glenn T. Seaborg, Bernard G. Harvey, Gregory R. Choppin and Albert Ghiorso working at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1955. They bombarded atoms of einsteinium-253 with helium ions using a device known as a cyclotron. This produced atoms of mendelevium-256, an isotope with a half-life of about 77 minutes, and a free neutron.

Mendelevium's most stable isotope, mendelevium-258, has a half-life of about 51.5 days. It decays into einsteinium-254 through alpha decay or decays through spontaneous fission.

Since only small amounts of mendelevium have ever been produced, it currently has no uses outside of basic scientific research.