Lawrencium was first created by four men in Berkeley, California in 1961. These four scientists were Albert Ghiorso, Torbjorn Sikkeland, Almon Larsh, and Robert Latimer. Lawrencium was created by bombarding Californium with Boron Ions. Only three micrograms of Californium were used. These atoms retreated to a piece of copper, and were detected by using alpha rays. On November 4th, 1961, Lawrencium was added to the Periodic Table of the Elements. The picture below shows the four discoverers adding the element to the Periodic Table.
(http://imglib.lbl.gov/ImgLib/COLLECTIONS/BERKELEY-LAB/RESEARCH-1930-1990/NUCLEAR-PHYSICS/TRANSURANIUM-ELEMENTS/index/96904536.html)
The element Lawrencium was named after Ernest Lawrence. Lawrence lived from 1901 to 1958. He was born in Canton, South Dakota. In 1925 he earned his PHD from Yale University. He was an atomic physicist. Even though he helped create the atomic bomb he was also on the committee at the Geneva Convention that tried to ban it. He invented a number of machines that sped up the charges of particles. One of these such machines was the Cyclotron, which was invented in 1931. Below is a picture of Ernest Lawrence.
(http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1939/lawrence-bio.html)
The Cyclotron is a particle accelerator which is used to make artificial elements. The Cyclotron uses perpendicular magnetic fields to make the particles inside go in a circle. The particles enclosed in the Cyclotron can reach speeds near the speed of light. Along with being used for creating artificial elements it can also now be used to treat cancer. The x-rays produced by the Cyclotron can be used to send through the human body. Below is a picture of Ernest Lawrence with the Cyclotron
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(http://homepage.mac.com/dtrapp/people/Lawrencium.html)
In 1965 at the Joint institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia a Lawrencium Isotope was made that had a longer half life than the isotope made before. This isotopes half life was 35 compared to the half life of the previous isotope at 8 seconds.
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