Californium is a relatively new element. It was discovered only 66 years ago. For reference of what 66 years looks like, look at Mr. Lovell. Despite not having a particularly long history, californium does contain an interesting one. Californium was produced in 1950 at Berkeley, California by a team of scientists. In this team were Stanley Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr., Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn Seaborg. The element was produced by firing helium nuclei at curium (242). It took the team three years just to get the curium needed, but were able to perform the experiment nonetheless. If it weren’t for this incredible team of scientists, we wouldn’t have been able to produce californium and all of the following elements on the periodic table.
