Berkelium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with symbol Bk and atomic number 97. It is a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the University of California Radiation Laboratory where it was discovered in December 1949.
Three reasons Berkelium stands out
- 1
Named after Californian city, home to one of the world's top STEM universities.
- 2
Only a few billion atoms of it have ever been produced in total, making it extraordinarily rare even by synthetic element standards.
- 3
It was first synthesised in 1949 by bombarding another synthetic element with alpha particles.
A laboratory element named for a laboratory city
Berkelium was first produced at the University of California, Berkeley, continuing a geographic naming chain that includes terbium and californium. It exists only in tiny manufactured quantities. Even so, a carefully prepared berkelium target enabled the creation of tennessine decades later.