Lawrencium
⚛️ In Your World
Lawrencium is a purely synthetic element, the final member of the actinide series. It is so intensely radioactive and has such a short half-life (its most stable isotope lasts only about 11 hours) that it has no applications outside of fundamental scientific research. It has only ever been created in atom-sized quantities and has never been aggregated into a bulk metal.
📖 The Discovery Story
Lawrencium was first synthesized in 1961 by a team of scientists led by Albert Ghiorso at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) at the University of California, Berkeley. They produced it by bombarding a target of californium isotopes with boron ions. The element was named in honor of Ernest O. Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron particle accelerator, which was instrumental in the discovery of many transuranic elements.
📊 Properties at a Glance
| Phase at STP | Solid (presumed) |
| Melting Point | 1627 °C / 2961 °F (predicted) |
| Boiling Point | Unknown |
| Electron Configuration | [Rn] 5f¹⁴7s²7p¹ |
| Abundance in Earth's Crust | Essentially zero |
⚠️ Safety & Handling
Lawrencium is intensely radioactive and extremely hazardous. It has only ever been produced on an atom-by-atom basis in particle accelerators. All work with lawrencium is conducted in specialized hot cells with remote manipulators to protect researchers from its lethal radiation.