Nobelium was discovered in 1957 when a group of
Swedish Scientists from the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockhlom; Alfred
Nobel being the lead scientist. They made nobelium by “bombarding” curium-244
with ions of carbon-13 in a cyclotron. This produced a nobelium with a half life
of 10 minutes.
A year later, Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, Torborn Sikkeland and John R. Walton from Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in California tried to re create the element by bombarding curium-246 with carbon-12. Unfortunately, they were only able to create a nobelium with a half-life of three seconds, by bombarding curium-246 with carbon-12.
They were able to create Nobelium this way:
The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was the third group of scientists to attempt to create the element. Similar to the scientists from California, they were unable to create the element with a half life of 10 minutes, but they were able to re create nobelium 254.
Nobelium’s most stable isotope is Nobelium 259, which has a half life of 58 minutes. Nobelium is incredibly expensive to create; therefore, only little amounts have been created. Today, Nobelium has no known uses aside from scientific research.