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

[Astronuc]

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/

 

[LightHero]

This new isotope of mendelevium has potential applications in nuclear medicine, as its relatively long decay times may enable it to be used to create medical isotopes for imaging and therapy. It could also be used for studies of nuclear structure and the synthesis of other transactinide elements.