Nobelium

Nobelium is a synthetic element with the symbol No and atomic number 102. It was first correctly identified in 1966 by scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Soviet Union. Little is known about the element but limited chemical experiments have shown that it forms a stable divalent ion in solution as well as the predicted trivalent ion that is associated with its presence as one of the actinides.

The discovery of element 102 was first announced by physicists at the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957. The team reported that they created an isotope with a half-life of 10 minutes, decaying by emission of an 8.5 MeV alpha particle, after bombarding 244Cm with 13C nuclei. The activity was assigned to 251No or 253No. The scientists proposed the name nobelium (No) for the new element. Later they retracted their claim and associated the activity to background effects.