[Rockhounds] Chemists create and capture einsteinium, the elusive 99th element

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Scientists have successfully studied *einsteinium*
<https://www.livescience.com/40307-einsteinium.html> — one of the most
elusive and heaviest elements on the *periodic table*
<https://www.livescience.com/25300-periodic-table.html> — for the first
time in decades. The achievement brings chemists closer to discovering the
so-called "island of stability," where some of the heftiest and
shortest-lived elements are thought to reside.

The U.S. Department of Energy first discovered einsteinium in 1952 in the
fall-out of the first *hydrogen bomb*
<https://www.livescience.com/53280-hydrogen-bomb-vs-atomic-bomb.html> test.
The element does not occur naturally on Earth and can only be produced in
microscopic quantities using specialized nuclear reactors. It is also hard
to separate from other elements, is highly radioactive and rapidly decays,
making it extremely difficult to study.

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
at the University of California, recently created a 233-nanogram sample of
pure einsteinium and carried out the first experiments on the element since
the 1970s. In doing so they were able to uncover some of the element's
fundamental chemical properties for the first time.

https://www.livescience.com/einsteinium-experiments-uncover-chemical-properties.html