B What is the significance of the newly discovered isotope, Mendelevium-244?

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A team of scientists working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has discovered a new form of the human-made element mendelevium. The newly created isotope, mendelevium-244, is the 17th and lightest form of mendelevium, which is element Z=101 on the periodic table.
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-isotope-mendelevium-.html

Mendelevium was first created by Berkeley Lab scientists in 1955. In the latest discovery, the team used Berkeley Lab's 88-Inch Cyclotron to bombard a target foil of 209Bi with 40Ar nuclei to make mendelevium-244. I presume that's a spallation reaction emitting 5 neutrons, since Z(Bi) = 83 and Z(Ar) = 18, and Z(Bi)+Z(Ar)=Z(Md) = 101.

Researchers found evidence that mendelevium-244 has two separate chains of decay, each leading to a different half-life: 0.4 second and 6 seconds, based on different energy configurations of particles in its nucleus.

https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/06/23/introducing-a-new-isotope-mendelevium-244/
 
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