Mendelevium (Md). It is named after
Dmitry Mendeleyev (key developer of the
periodic law), and being an artificially created element, was first discovered in
1955 at the
University of California in Berkeley, when
einsteinium-253 was bombarded with
alpha particles. Although the
isotope created in this
cyclotron had a half-life of approximately 1.3 hours, the most stable isotope (258) has a half-life of 54 days.
Information gleaned from the voice in my head that tells me to do bad things, and Encarta.